100 themes: Fullmetal Alchemist
by mangaluva
Summary: I got plunnied a hundred themes and they make for some good writing therapy. Primarily in the manga/Brotherhoodverse, but a few from the first anime. Oneshots.
1. Royalty

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_98: Royalty

_**Characters: **_Roy, Riza

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_557

_**Warnings: **_Brigadier General Olivier Mira Armstrong's death glare.

"Welcome to the head office, Fuhrer Mustang."

Roy nodded at the assembled generals. All of them, save Brigadier General Armstrong, had been in their positions no longer than four years, making her the default senior, and it was she who went through the formal proceedings, on some strange and frightening line between utter boredom and pure rage. It was kinda fun to watch.

"... and, naturally, there is a panic button under the desk. This one sets off emergency alarms throughout headquarters, and this one is a silent alarm to summon a unit to your office." Olivier Mira Armstrong strode around the desk, deliberately avoiding having to look at Roy's smug grin. "Will that be all, sir?"

"Yes, thank you," he said, quite enjoying the pure venom in that _sir_. "I will spend this morning moving my papers and effects, and, of course, making myself presentable for the late Fuhrer Grumman's funeral this afternoon."

"That'll be a piece of work," Armstrong murdered, giving him a karate-chop salute, imitated (with somewhat less force) by the other generals, before leading them from the room, leaving the new Fuhrer alone with his PA.

"You seem to quite enjoy her hatred," Riza commented, beginning to unpack some paperwork.

"It's invigorating," Roy said with a shrug and an unashamed grin."After all, without homunculi and crooked senior staff, I would grow sloppy if nobody wanted to kill me!" He checked through some of the papers that Riza handed him on the way to the filing cabinet. "Hmmm... congratulations from Emperor Ling... request for ceasefire discussions from the Prince of Aerugo... and the King of Creta... hmmm."

"Something on your mind, sir?" Riza asked, not having to look at him to know the thoughtful expression on his face.

"Just thinking about rulers," he said. "It seems that Amestris is the only country in the continent without a hereditary monarchy, yet it ended up more fixed and corrupt than any country run by an inbred aristocrat. Isn't that something?"

"Well, the last corrupt Fuhrer was _King_ Bradley," Riza said dryly. "Elected though the position may be, we were never meant to be under any illusions about what it really was. In Xing especially, I suppose good blood just finds its way." She frowned at him. "Are you so sure that you want to begin implementing a democracy right away? We are still in something of a state of war, primarily with Aerugo and Drachma; a full peace settlement has yet to be implemented. The people may prefer someone like General Armstrong in that position."

"Hey, I fought in Central too," Roy reminded her. "And I'll always make my way back here. Don't you know? "Roy..." means _royalty._"

Riza stared at him for a moment. "...How can you talk about yourself as royalty in the same breath as declaring yourself a democratically elected ruler?"

"It's that indefinable charisma and charm that got me where I am now," he teased, his grin softening. "But no king can win the war without his pawns, his rooks, his knights, his bishops... and his queen."

Riza quickly turned around to hide her expression, shuffling some more papers away. "Hmmm... so, are you still planning to implement some changes to the fraternization laws?"

"They'll pass with no problem when everyone's focused on the democracy laws," Roy chuckled. "I plan to be a _very_ busy king..."

_Am... am I writing FMA fic? O_o Yeah, I was discussing FMA day with a friend, who sent me some prompts. I think they're from a DA group or something, but I can't draw, so writing instead!_

_I really got into Fullmetal Alchemist recently. I'd never been interested before, but then my roommate in India spent a full hour one bored day ranting about how much she loved Maes Hughes and how his death was the saddest thing to have ever happened ever, and I promised to check it out when I got home. I looked up the manga, not expecting to read more than the first chapter. About four hours later, I got called out for dinner and spent the entire meal panicking about how Ed and Ling were going to get out of Gluttony's stomach XD So yeah... my plunnies attacked the prompts with a vengeance. It's broken my writer's block, at any rate. So, if I get through these, will you guys get back to work on _Spirit Detective?

_Plunnies: ...maaaaaaybe._

_Me: Good enough._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	2. Lawyer

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_82: Lawyer

_**Characters: **_Elicia Hughes

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_521

_**Warnings: **_Reference to Maes' death *SOB* and lawyers.

Elicia flicked idly through another coursebook. Soon they'd be choosing Standard courses, and then Higher courses, and they needed the ones that could get them into the college or University or job that they wanted. So they had to choose carefully.

The problem was, Elicia had no idea _what_ she wanted to do. She had a vague idea that she wanted to stop criminals and murderers, but she wasn't sure how to go about that, aside from joining the army. She could drop out and do that when she was sixteen, she supposed, but that was still four years away, and she wasn't _that_ sure that she wanted to do it anyway. It would feel too much like following in her father's footsteps, and while she still loved her late father dearly and still held him closely in her heart, she wasn't sure that she wanted to take the same path that he had. He had wanted to protect people, to bring justice, but she knew from Social lessons that the military that he had joined was very different from the military now, had been a military that had restricted and confined what he could do- and, in the end, killed him for trying to do it anyway.

The military under Uncle Roy was very different, she was sure. But she was also sure that she wanted some independence. She kept looking through coursebooks and job descriptions, trying to figure out what might fit the bill.

It was in the University prospectuses that she spotted a section on _law._ She was sure that she would find the answer to her search there, so began eagerly skimming the courses. It was there that she found a word she hadn't heard before, a profession that she hadn't known about: _Lawyer._

It seemed to be a relatively new thing. Lawyers had, until a few years ago, all been in the employ of the military, but recently independent law firms had opened. Probably something to do with all this democracy stuff that everyone was so excited about. She didn't quite get how all of that worked either, being _politics,_ but after a while reading she was sure she had the general idea of being a lawyer. Innocent people could hire you to protect them if they were accused of a crime, and you could be hired to prove guilty people guilty. She wasn't sure how you told which was which. She hoped you got to choose for yourself. She didn't want the army to tell her which was which. Even under Uncle Roy, she wasn't sure that she could trust them to get it right.

She started writing ideas in her notebook, courses she might like to do, Universities she might have to go to, Standard and Higher classes that she'd have to pass to do it. The idea was starting to make her excited.

These days, people could make their own justice. The army wasn't making it for them. It had taken far too long for justice to happen for her father, and she didn't want anyone else to have to wait as long.

_I see Elicia as a total crusader-for-justice type after her father's death. Like a sweeter Kisaki Eri._

_Also, having no idea how Amestrian schools work, I'm basing them vaguely on the Scottish system because that's what I know._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	3. Sad

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_4: Sad

_**Characters: **_Winry Rockbell

_**Universe: **_Anime

_**Words: **_339

_**Warnings: **_Winry being a bit emo.

Sadness was the appropriate feeling at a funeral, or standing before a grave. You could allow yourself to feel the sadness there, let it flow out into the coffin or grave, and then let it crumble to dust there, until you felt you could rise above it and remember your lost loved ones happily. Outside of the graveyard, you had other things to do with your life than be sad. Since you were still alive.

So what did you do with your sadness if there was no grave, no body, no death even for sure?

It had been two months and Winry still could never decide how to feel about the Elric Brothers. On the one hand, after three years, Ed had transpired to be alive. She had gotten to see him again, hold him again, fix those limbs he was always breaking again. And then he had been gone again, into the portal, with Al, probably never to return this time. Wherever they were, Ed had lived there comfortably enough for three years, and he would probably be all the happier there with Al. Al was probably happy, too. He'd never really been after coming back, not without his big brother. It had only been two months. They were probably fine. They would probably have long and happy lives there. They would die old men a very long time from now.

And she'd _never know._

It was probably all the worse because she'd gotten to see Ed after he'd disappeared. She could still believe that they could come back someday, but, while she didn't know much about alchemy, General Mustang had told her enough to understand that they really couldn't. The portal couldn't open again. She would never see them again, so she might as well mourn then now, remember them happily and hope that they were in a happy place in the other world.

Still, there was no grave. No body. _Nothing._

So what could she do with her sadness? There was nowhere for it to go.

_I liked the first anime- not as much as the manga and Brotherhood, but I did enjoy it. I just never liked the ending very much, even with the extra little bit of roundup that the movie gave it. I liked seeing Ed and Al together again, but it still deeply disappointed the EdWin shipper in me, and the bit of EdRose that I'd developed for the first anime. I just felt bad for Winry, since it seemed that she got a very lonely ending._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	4. Cosplay

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_72: Cosplay

_**Characters: **_ Edward Elric, Roy Mustang

_**Universe:**_ manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_ 248

_**Warnings: **_ Cosplayers and fangirls.

"So... what the hell's all _that_?" Ed asked during a lull in conversation, pointing out of Roy's estate window to the nearby school, where he could see dozens of kids pouring out in red coats, blue uniforms, and varied attempts at Xingese garb. Some of them seemed to be sporting wigs. "Some kinda costume party? I was seeing kids in costume all the way down the road." He glared at the General. "Couldn't help noticing that some of them seemed to have tinfoil wrapped around their right arms. And I saw one kid in paper-mache armour."

"Did you see the ones in miniature uniforms with the decorated gloves?" Roy said, sounding far too enthusiastic. "One of the Social Studies classes is cosplaying as famous State Alchemists! I was quite impressed with the kid in the bald wig and knitted gauntlets. Too bad he was so skinny, it looked a bit out of place. I think one poor girl got sent home for painting her cat's fur to make it look like a tiny panda..."

"_Why?_" Ed asked, outright confused. Roy grinned at his former subordinate's naiveté.

"Well..." he said, glancing back out of the window. "That's a high school, so I can think of two reasons: fangirls and guys who want to get fangirls. Ahh, if only I'd thought of that back in the day..."

Edward facepalmed. He kind of wished he still had a metal arm. It would make slapping the General so much sweeter right now.

_There was so much potential for fourth-wall breakage in this prompt, but my brain just didn't want to go there for some reason XD_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	5. Poor

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_42: Poor

_**Characters: **_ Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Noa

_**Universe:**_ anime

_**Words: **_ 366

_**Warnings: **_ Alternate-Universe EdRose and AlWin shipping.

Ed really wasn't accustomed to not having money around. As a child, money had always been around, money his father had; he'd probably put a hundred Cenz in a bank and let it get interest for a couple hundred years. The old bastard somehow managed to be well-off in Germany, too, and Ed had no pride issues about taking his money. He figured the old man owed him that much, at least.

And back in Amestris, he'd been a State Alchemist. State Alchemists were _never_ poor.

He'd still had Hohenheim's money to fall back on when they'd gotten back to Germany, and it had really lasted, especially with the money that Alfons had left them. Ed had worked a few jobs in labs, but it was hard to keep a job down when he and Alphonse had to keep moving, to find that Uranium bomb. Besides, more and more, it was hard to find a lab that _wasn't_ being run by the National Socialists. Eckhart was dead, but she wasn't the only nutter supporting this world's "Fuhrer", and they were growing in number and power all the time.

Ed counted himself luck that he, Al and Noa had had the sense to organize a trip to the US in 1932. It had cost a fortune, but the World's Fair had been fascinating, they'd found a couple of leads to the bomb, and then Noa had gotten pregnant, which in Ed's book was the final reason to stay in America. He wasn't sticking his wife on a ship back through uncertain waters, to a country, he later realized, that would have executed her before the baby was due.

So they stayed in America, and now, cut off from Hohenheim's money and without work visas, Ed was having to accustom himself to being _poor_. To working in a damn _shop._ To making a _budget_!

Being poor wasn't something he was used to. But then again, he was gently rubbing his wife's distended belly, watching Al chat nervously to the pretty and oddly familiar blue-eyed blonde from the mechanic's next door, in an alternate universe where Alchemy didn't work.

He could get used to anything, he figured.

_In the manga and Brotherhood, I ship EdWin, so when I first watched _Conquerors of Shamballa_ I was disappointed on that front. Then I watched the first anime (Yes I know I did it backwards, I mixed things up :P) and started shipping EdRose for that universe, and ended up disappointed there, too. EdNoa is the best the movie's left me with :P_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	6. Memory

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_67: Memory

_**Characters: **_ Alphonse Elric

_**Universe:**_ anime

_**Words: **_ 308

_**Warnings: **_ Al being a wee bit emo.

Al's eleventh birthday was a strange experience for him. Winry (was that really Winry? She was so... grown-up! And so pretty, he privately thought...) and Rose had invited a ton of people that he felt he knew, but couldn't remember. There was the army woman he'd met briefly in Central, the blonde lady with all the guns, and several of her fellow soldiers that seemed to know Al and Ed really well, including a General with only one eye. There were also a few other alchemists, including a couple of brothers who seemed to have known Ed and Al very well, and even some foreigners. He knew them, but he couldn't _remember_ them.

There were a lot of things that he _knew_ but didn't remember how. He knew that clapping was a good way to transmute, but he couldn't figure out how to do it, beyond sewing some all-purpose transmutation circles onto the palms of his gloves, and he couldn't remember how he knew those, either. He had the idea to stitch sensei's Flamel symbol onto his coat, the new red one he'd gotten in central, and for a moment, holding the coat, he had _déjà vu_ for a memory that he didn't have. It was disorienting, but somehow, it made his brother feel closer.

He had lost so many memories of his brother, and that hurt. His brother was everything, the only family he had. The loss of those memories was like physical pain in his head every day, and he found himself clinging to the strangest things to bring them even a tiniest bit closer. A certain hairstyle. The coat. Travelling to places for no specific reason other than that they gave him that same déjà vu.

He'd do anything for those memories, even grabbing a facsimile of them. Until he could find his brother and bring him back, they were all he had left of him.

_I like to think that the reason that Al is dressing exactly like Ed in the movie isn't due to lazy character design, but because he finds himself drawn to things which remind him of his brother, even if he doesn't know why. Although Al is significantly more adorable than Ed XDXDXDXD_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	7. Rage

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_92: Anger/Rage

_**Characters: **_ Wrath

_**Universe:**_ manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_ 308

_**Warnings: **_ Obvious character choice is obvious.

All his life, he had lived quite emotionlessly. There'd be a kind of excitement, he supposed, in looking forward to the day when the Fuhrer would be chosen, and that had driven him enough to excel in everything he did. There was nothing in his life but constant _focus_, thinking only of how to excel in his next class, practicing and studying and making himself _better_. Good enough to _rule_.

There really wasn't a lot of emotion to it. Emotion was one lesson that they'd missed, one thing that he hadn't trained him in. So really, what had overwhelmed him most, when the Philosopher's Stone had been injected into his veins and his body started to tear itself apart, were the _emotions _that surged through him. The passion, the glee, the _anger._

He _loved_ it.

Was that what saved him, in the end? In lessons, he'd always embraced every new lesson, every new piece of information, and now, he embraced _feeling_. He loved feeling the rage coursing through his body, how hot it made his blood, the energy it gave him. He'd looked forward to being Fuhrer all his life, because what else was there? But now he _wanted_. For himself. He wanted to fight, to kill, to destroy all who stood in his way.

Right then and there, he knew he'd accept it all. No matter what the price. He'd ride it all his life, the passion, the rage, the _wrath._

It looked like fun.

_I'm getting some of these out quite rapidly, since I've taken to sitting down and burning through a few to warm myself up to start writing. It's fun XD_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	8. Abandon

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_99: Abandon

_**Characters: **_ Jean Havoc, Winry Rockbell

_**Universe:**_ manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_ 798

_**Warnings: **_ Descriptions of gory war wounds (not explicit)

"So, how's he doin', Doctor Rockbell?" Havoc said, grinning at the stunning blonde who opened the door to the country clinic. She greeted him with a gentle hug, before stepping back and allowing the oldest and most energetic of her brood to come barrelling through to greet "Unc' Hav" with a hug around the legs. "Hey, squirt. How're you?"

"Not a squirt," the four-year-old whined, crossing his arms and pouting before stomping off.

"Y'know, that kid's so like his dad it's creepy," Havoc grumbled, remembering to stub out his cigarette before entering the house. "You really have anythin' to do with him, or did Chief cut off the other leg and just mutate it?"

"I'd wonder if he couldn't do alchemy any more," Winry chuckled. "Anyway, come on in. Tom's fever broke last night, and Kier's been good for a couple of days. I'm starting to take measurements to build their limbs, though of course Tom's taking a bit of guesswork... do you have his medical records and measurements?"

"Right here," Havoc said, handing over a few sheets. "Where's Chief?"

"I sent him down to Rush Valley to get some rare parts for me," she said, flipping through the documents. "Never done two legs on the same person before, you need some extra pelvic attachments..."

"Give the boy whatever he needs," Havoc said, shrugging. "His health insurance'll cover it. It's all comin' outta Roy's pocket!"

"Oooh, you're unleashing a monster here!" Winry laughed, reaching up and tying on her headscarf. "Right, I'm going to go start making some calculations. They're in the room at the end of the hall if you want to go talk to them."

"Ta," Havoc said, watching her start up the stairs and heading down the hall, smiling as he heard her speak to giggling children. Fullmetal wasn't here, but Havoc knew that he was pretty happy with retired life. Fair play to him, Havoc figured. He might've been alright with it too, if he'd had a smokin' hot wife and kids to spend it with. And at least one functioning leg.

"How're you boys doing?" He said, letting himself in and settling himself down on a chair between the two beds. "Doc Rock says she'll be putting your parts back on soon. Sound good, right?"

"Hell yeah!" Kier cheered. The twenty-year-old was an irrepressibly cheerful half-Ishvalan, and the only difference that losing an arm to a Cretan mine seemed to have made was that it stopped him giving what he dubbed "high-tens". Havoc made a silent note to watch out for those when his new arm was installed; he could break wrists with a _flesh_ arm.

Tom was quieter. Well, losing both legs above the knee was a bitch. Havoc could relate. "How 'bout you, Tom? Hey, at least your spine wasn't damaged. If you'd lost those nerve endings, no surgeon in all of Rush Valley coulda given you legs. Imagine how you're gonna run when you get outta rehab!"

"Yeah, it'll be cool," Tom said, with a vague smile. "How's your injuries, Colonel?"

"What, these?" Havoc tapped his side gingerly. "Eh, only lost two ribs and the docs saved everything vital and squishy, so it's all good, right? Got you fine boys out safe too, which counts as a win in my book."

"That was _amazing_, Colonel!" Kier said enthusiastically. "I thought you were gonna bleed to death, but you got us outta there anyway! How'd you _do_ that, sir?"

"Yeah, how the hell, Colonel?" Tom asked curiously. "Pardon my Augeron, sir. But how'd you manage that?"

"Sheer bloody-mindedness," Havoc said with a shrug. "Learned that from _my_ Colonel. Took a hell of a lot to make _that_ man die, more than anybody's managed yet. Couldn't let my guys die, could I?"

"How'd you know we weren't dead already?" Tom asked quietly. "Colonel, I passed out when I got my legs blown, and I _know_ I bled a hell of a lot. Kier sure as hell looked dead the half-second I came to. Most guys would've abandoned us, especially when they were injured themselves. Why didn't you? Abandon us, I mean? How'd you know we were alive?"

"...didn't," Havoc confessed with a shrug. "But I had to take the off-chance you were still alive. I _had_ to. Something else I learned from my Colonel; never leave a man behind, dead or alive." He smiled reminiscently. "He never left me." He grinned brightly, his exuberant self again. "So you owe it to any men you're in charge of in the future. Use that metal arm to haul 'em away from danger, use them metal legs to run to the front of the charge. It's the least maggots like us can do, right?"

The men glanced at each other, and then saluted their Colonel solemnly. "Yes, sir!"

_I always wanted to give Havoc a hug after he lost the use of his legs D: At least it didn't stop him being AWESOME!_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	9. Homunculi

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_29: Homunculi

_**Characters: **_ Roy Mustang

_**Universe:**_ manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_ 529

_**Warnings: **_ Slight mindscrewage

"_Just as you humans are proud to be humans, we Homunculi take pride in what we are. That woman you killed... she took that pride to her grave._"

Roy had a lot to mull over that night, far too much to even think of sleeping. Contrary to popular belief, he very rarely drank heavily, preferring to act it up, but alcoholism was starting to have its attractions. For a blissfully brief while, he might be able to let go of all those stomach-twisting fears, for Lieutenant Hawkeye, for his men, for Fullmetal, for Amestris. And he'd forget about those words that the Fuhrer- _Wrath_- had left him with, words that kept floating to the surface of his mind.

Reading about Homunculi in alchemy texts as a teenager, he'd thought it an abhorrent idea; humans that were, really, not human at all. Never changing, unable to feel true emotions or have friends or family. When Alphonse had brought them up, on the heels of the incineration of the fat creature, he'd thought it even more monstrous. _How _could anyone enjoy being such an abomination? Surely death would be release.

Solaris' words kept coming back to him, too. "_That hurt. We do have feelings, you know. We love the Father that created us, identical to you except for a few small things..."_ the fat one's response to her death certainly wasn't unfeeling. It was still a monster, there was no doubt... but clearly, it was hurt on some level that wasn't physical. Solaris had spoken of loving their Father, too. He still had to wonder about the Fuhrer- did he truly feel anything at all for Mrs Bradley and Selim? Or were they pawns too?- but nevertheless, one preconception had been proven wrong. Homunculi did seem to have feelings- or at least, some of them did.

Another. They spoke of their creator as "Father", and there was clearly great reverence there. Solaris and the fat one had been close, too, and Wrath seemed proud of her. And Alphonse had spoken of another, Greed, having a large group of friends who seemed genuinely close. He had attacked Wrath to avenge them. So they had family, too, of a sort, and could have friends.

And for their monstrous powers, their immortality... those were things that many humans would envy, no doubt. Why shouldn't they be proud of them?

Homunculi were vastly different from humans, there was no doubt about that. But still, they could take pride in what they were, pride in what they had that humans didn't. Roy could respect that, in an odd way. But at the same time, it made him all the prouder to be human, to have things that homunculi didn't. Both sides would have to fight to defend that pride, and, inevitably, one side would have to be wiped out.

A short while after dawn broke, Roy rose, checking his gloves in his pocket and preparing to return to work. Yes, the homunculi were welcome to fight for survival, just as Roy would fight for the survival of humanity. Let evolution take its course.

Time to see whose strengths were stronger, and whose pride was in vain.

_I wonder how Selim and Mrs Bradley got along after everything? I wonder if they ever told him what he was. _

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	10. School

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_61: School

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Winry Rockbell, Alphonse Elric

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_408

_**Warnings: **_Dropouts.

"A fence should _not_ be that damn hard to put up," Ed grouched, slouching in the door about three hours after he had said he would. Winry stifled a giggle at the bandages wrapped around his thumbs. "Look at me! Using a damn hammer! I'm not made for this."

"Is this a fence that's going to hold up?" Winry asked dubiously. There was a snigger from the table, and Ed glared at his little brother, but Al's eyes hadn't moved from his book, so something must have been very amusing in the mediaeval alchemy text.

"I'll have you know that Mrs Parks was very happy with it," he grouched, waving a couple of bills in her face. "Who's the useless laybout now, huh?"

"I'm sure you're a very good handyman," Winry said soothingly, totally not giggling at all, not even a little. "Just as well, it's about all you're qualified for..."

"Excuse me?" Ed asked suspiciously. Winry rolled her eyes.

"Well, you _did_ drop out of school when you were eleven," she pointed out. "Who's going to hire a _primary-school_ dropout? Maybe you should go back and finish school..."

"Winry..." Ed fumed, "I am _seventeen years old._ Very nearly. I am not going back to _primary_ school. Besides, _he_ dropped out too!"

"I'm an alchemist," Al volunteered. "We're naturally intelligent."

"Just because that pasty jackass took away my ability to _use_ alchemy hasn't brain-damaged me," Ed growled, slamming his hand onto the table. "I'll still rearrange _you_ if you're gonna ask for it!"

"Well, we haven't sparred since I got my body back," Al said brightly, closing his book and grinning innocently at his brother. "Loser gets no pie?"

Ed hesitated. Al was more sprightly these days, but he was still in rehabilitation, so either Ed held back and lost, or he didn't and he was a jackass, and probably humiliated when he lost _anyway._

"Sparring's not proper fighting," he grunted, turning on his heel and stomping back out of the door. Al and Winry grinned at each other before Al followed suit.

"I'll call you two in when the pie's out," Winry promised, leaning over to peek into the oven before return to the selection of wires that she was sifting through.

"That'll be great! Pie, pie, pie~!" Al sang as he almost bounced out of the door. Winry finally allowed herself to laugh.

It had been seven months, and it was still good having them home.

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	11. Sacrifice

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_40: Sacrifice

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Roy Mustang, Izumi Curtis

_**Universe: **_manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_850

_**Warnings: **_Philosophizing

"You can't just... _ditch_ equivalent exchange," Roy said in exasperation. "It's the core tenet of alchemy!"

"We're not _ditching_ it," Al said patiently. "We're just saying that we might be interpreting it wrong... the _equivalent_ part, anyway. Nii-san came up with it..."

It was Al's sixteenth birthday, and to celebrate his first birthday for a few years where he could actually eat his birthday cake, they'd gone out to East City with a group of friends and family. Currently, the four alchemists in attendance (Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong hadn't come; he hadn't been able to get the leave) had drifted away from the rest of the party, and were in heated discussion about the new principle that Ed and Al had come up with.

"It all hinges on how you determine value," Ed explained. "For example: would you consider the ability to do alchemy as _equivalent_ to a human life?"

Roy stared thoughtfully from one brother to the other, recognizing what might have started Ed on this train of thought.

"No," Izumi said, shaking her head. "If it would have saved my baby, I know I would have given up my Gate and never given it a second thought. Do you regret giving up your alchemy, Ed?"

"Not for a moment," Ed said promptly. "I mean, hell, I miss it sometimes... like anything involving a damn hammer..." he twitched a slightly swollen thumb wrapped in plasters. "But I wouldn't take back the trade. I figure I got a cheap deal, anyway." He clapped his hand to his brother's shoulder with a grin. Al smiled back broadly.

"We said that equivalent exchange is the basis of all life, not just alchemy, but that's not strictly true," Al continued. "Many of the trades we make in daily life aren't equivalent. Some nights, you don't sleep very long, but get a ton of energy from it. Others, you sleep even longer and feel like it isn't enough. There's no constant standard for equal trades."

"It isn't equivalent exchange that's a part of all life, but _sacrifice_," Ed explained. "You sacrifice money in exchange for goods and services. You sacrifice food to supply your body. You sacrifice your energy to do things. Sacrifice is what everything works around. But you can sacrifice more than you receive, and you can also gain more than you sacrifice."

"That makes sense," Izumi said thoughtfully. "It's true, the exchanges in our life are not necessarily equivalent..."

"So what are you thinking of?" Roy asked curiously. "A way to exploit the exchange, to get more for less?"

"No, it's the opposite actually!" Al laughed. "It's... you tell them, Nii-san, it was your idea."

"You're the one that's still an alchemist," Ed said, rolling his eyes. "Basically, we want to express a principle of giving more than you receive. If you receive 10, add something from yourself to give back 11. That way, the world in general becomes a little richer."

"There was something in Scar's brother's notes about the flows of positives and negatives," Al continued. "This principle creates a positive flow. If we continue to encourage positive flows, the world begins to flow positively, and everybody gains."

"With some things, the more you sacrifice, the more there is," Ed said. "Feelings like rage, and hatred, and grief, just grow the more you share them... but at the same time, you can still give joy, and friendship, and love, and always have more to give. The more you give, the more there is." He blushed under their stares. "What?"

"That was just... almost _poetic_," Roy said in surprise. "I don't know if I'm more fascinated by the principle or you being poetic. Did that really just happen?"

"Believe it or not, Ed can be sweet when he feels like it," Winry interjected, wandering over to the table. "C'mon, Alchemy-Otaku, you're missing the party." She grabbed Ed and Al by an arm each. The boys followed docilely enough, which was _definitely_ odd for Ed.

"I'll have to investigate the principle," Izumi mused. "This could revolutionize alchemy... it's a nice precept for life, too."

"Do you think Ed accidentally sacrificed a portion of his brain when he got Al back?" Roy said, watching in fascination as the ex-alchemist in question pointedly ignored a glass of milk that he was being offered in favour of stuffing himself with nachos from a snack bowl. "It's the only thing I can think of to explain it..."

"Lighten up," Izumi chuckled, rising as her husband wandered over to see if the alchemy discussion was over. "The boy's _happy_, and why shouldn't he be? He gave so much of himself, and only gained as a result. He cheated the Truth into a bargain!"

She left too, leaving Roy sitting on his own for a moment, watching the brothers throw cupcakes at each other to "transmute" into later's indigestion.

"Didn't really lose a thing of value, did he?" Roy mused. "Cheeky little-"

"Sir, are you going to come eat or not?" Riza called. Roy snapped off a salute and slipped back into the positive flow of the party.

_I always loved the new principle that they came up with in the end. I liked the optimistic and altruistic nature of it. I don't know how it would actually WORK, but then, I fail real science forever, never mind fictional sciences XDXD_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	12. Space

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_63: Space

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alfons Heydrich

_**Universe: **_Anime

_**Words: **_217

_**Warnings: **_Alfons being a meanie.

"Here we go," Alfons said, tilting the telescope a little. "Can you see that?"

Ed peered into the telescope, spotting the magnified red dot. "Is that Mars?"

"Yeah! Hey, I thought you said you didn't know anything about Astronomy," Alfons laughed, taking the telescope back and looking around.

"Not a lot," Ed said, shrugging, "but who doesn't know their planets? They're important for alchemy, too..."

Alfons laughed. "Alchemy, huh? That again? So it needs planets now, too? What about constellations? Have you made up any good ones?"

"They look the same here as they did back there," Ed said, ignoring Alfons' jabs. "So maybe home's not as far away as I thought. Maybe if I could just get up into space, I could look down and see it..."

"Ed, we still can't fly enough to get out of the atmosphere," Alfons laughed, "let alone get into _space_! Even if the Professor's rockets work, they're not designed to come back down again. We're a long way away from space travel, Ed. Best to keep your feet on the ground."

"Yeah, you're right," Ed said, taking the telescope as Alfons passed it back and peering at Venus. "That's where you have to start to get into the air."

_Is it just there... on the other side of that sky?_

_I wonder if the planets and stars are the same from Amestris? If it's an alternate version of our universe, I guess they should be..._

_Also, this is possibly the last day that I'll upload three at a time consistently... I wrote about nine oneshots on the day that I picked up the prompt list, and I've written a few more since, but I'm going to start posting them as I write them now. I've got no real schedule. Sometime I write three or four at a shot because nothing else is flowing, and sometimes I don't write any because I've got something going really well in another fic. This thing's just for funsies XD_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	13. Research

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_18: Research

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Winry Rockbell

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_259

_**Warnings: **_Kids being kids.

"It's good that you were paying attention in class for once," Winry said, shoving her notebook and pencilcase into her bag. "You know, if you did that more often, you might actually learn something..."

"Nah, it was a waste of time," Ed grumbled, grabbing up his own bag and glaring at the anatomy dummy that the teacher was hauling out of the classroom. "She didn't say anything we didn't know already. She didn't even go into element ratios!"

"Go into _what_?" Winry asked, frowning. "What do you need to know _those_ for?"

"Alchemy research," Ed muttered, pulling back from the subject and heading towards Al's classroom.

"Alchemy _again?_" Winry complained, following him. "You two are _always_ reading about alchemy!"

"We like alchemy! We're going to be alchemists!" Ed said firmly, looking into Al's classroom. "Hey, Al, you done?"

"Coming, Nii-san!" Al called, neatly packing his bag up. "What did you do in class today?"

"They had an anatomy dummy," Ed explained, "and I had a thought. It probably won't be in any of the alchemy books, but if we can find a human biology book..." the two descended into private whispering. They were _always_ doing that, and it pissed Winry off!

"Alchemy Otaku, both of you!" she yelled, whacking them both over the head with her bag in a single swipe and running off. "If you want to spend all your time reading, I'll eat your dinner for you!"

"Ahh! No! Winry, wait!" Al yelled in panic, chasing after her. She could hear Ed yelling angrily too. Stupid boys!

_I can totally see Ed and Al just sitting with books in the corner every day in class XDXDXD Or maybe not. Al might be too polite for that. He probably conscientiously did his work first and then started reading XD_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	14. Angel

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_52: Angel

_**Characters:**_ Edward Elric

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_769

_**Warnings: **_Post-canon character death.

"Daddy, Sarah hadda bad dream..."

Ed looked up from the crib to see two bleary little faces peering around the door. Toby was holding Sarah's hand tightly, while the toddler wiped her eyes and hiccoughed. He gave the baby another quick glance, but he had stopped coughing and was sleeping soundly now, so Ed could leave him alone for a few minutes. His older kids needed him.

"What did you have a bad dream about, sweetie?" he said, stooping down to pick up his daughter in one arm, scooping up Toby in the other. Normally, the five-year-old would insist that he was too big to be carried "like a baby", but right here in the pit of the night he leaned into his father's embrace. Ed was grateful for that. They all needed each other.

"All dark," Sarah whimpered, laying her head on his shoulder. "Way darker'n 'is. No moon 'r stars. An' no Daddy, or Mommy, or Toby nowhere."

"Toby and I are right here," Ed promised, nudging open the door to the kids' room with one foot. "Here we go." He lay them down on the soft mattress.

"I'm right here, Sarah," Toby promised, tugging over his pillow while Ed pulled up the covers to tuck them in. "I'm your big brother. I'll look after you!"

"You do a good job of it, big guy," Ed chuckled, tucking the sheet up around their shoulders. "And I'll stay right here until you're both safely asleep, okay?"

"Toby's here an' Daddy's here," Sarah said, pointing at them in turn. "But Mommy's not. How come?"

Ed flinched, but Sarah didn't see, and if Toby did, he didn't say anything. "Mommy had to go."

"When's Mommy comin' back?" Sarah asked. Ed smoothed her hair.

"She can't," he said softly. "Angels only get to stay on Earth for a little while."

"'Ngels?" Sarah asked. "What's angels?"

"I read about angels inna story book," Toby supplied. "They make miracles."

"That's right," Ed said, sitting down next to the bed to tell the story. "Angels come from Heaven and are all very pretty, and very kind, and they help people."

"Mommy made people parts," Toby said. "Like Daddy's leg."

"Mommy's pretty," Sarah agreed. "An' nice. Mommy came from Heaven!"

"Yep," Ed said. "Mommy made you, too, and Toby and Will."

"Bobby said kids get brought to people by storks," Toby interjected.

"Where do you think the storks get the babies from?"

"Oh." That seemed sensible enough to Toby. "Was that why Mommy was all fat?"

"That's an angel trick," Ed told him. "They grow babies in their stomachs, to keep them safe until they're big enough to grow on their own."

"Mommy's tummy?" Sarah mumbled sleepily. She was starting to drift off.

"So 'f Mommy was looking after us, where'd she go?" Toby asked, frowning. He sounded sleepy too, like he was making himself stay awake enough to ask questions.

"Angels don't get to stay in this world for long," he said. "They all have to go back to Heaven at some point..." He made himself smile. It hurt to talk about Winry- it was so damn _raw_- but he had to do what he could to make the kids feel better. Soothing them was what was important, even if it tore his own wounds wider. "They can still work angel magic from there, though. She's still looking after you, even if you can't see her."

"Mommy'll make bad dreams go...?" Toby asked, his eyes drifting closed. Ed smiled and patted his hair.

"That's right. Just think of her, and she'll be here with you, always."

"...'Kay... you too, right?" Toby asked, peeking one eye open. "Daddy looks after us too, an' Daddy's nice, an' Daddy knows all 'bout magic like Unc' Al does... you an angel too?"

Ed couldn't help laughing at that. "I'm about the farthest thing from it, Toby."

"...Good..." Toby said with a smile. "'t means Daddy can stay here..."

"Of course I will," Ed promised, over the lump in his throat. "I won't leave you behind, ever. I promise."

"Mmm..." within moments, Toby followed his sister back to sleep. Ed watched them sleep, keeping an eye out for any sign of a nightmare, but they were sleeping peacefully now. After a while, the sound of small coughs drifted down the hall. Ed kissed his older children on the forehead, and then, closing the door gently behind him, headed down the hall towards the nursery, to watch over the sick baby and rub his back until the coughing subsided again.

The moonlight watched over them both, soft as angel's feathers.

_Something in my brain decided that Ed and Winry's kids are named Toby and Sarah for no reason I can discern, and figured that they probably had more than two later on. Ed seems like the type to be a seriously dedicated father._

_...now that I have these kids in my brain, I want to write more about them. I just hope dead!Winry doesn't become stuck in my headcanon._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	15. Destruction

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_7: Destruction

_**Characters: **_Scar

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_641

_**Warnings: **_Possible overuse of the word "destruction"

In his fever, the tattoos on his- his _brother's_- right arm seemed to dance and weave like snakes in front of him. They reared up, took on the face of the mad bomber, struck down on his family, his friends, his brother...

He wasn't sure how he survived. Sometimes, he hallucinated that the arm moved on its own to soothe and patch his wounds, hallucinated that his brother knelt over him to tend to him, but when he awoke, he was always alone. He would forever be alone, now. Everybody else was dead.

He knew nothing of the blasphemous _alchemy_ that his brother had been so obsessed with, so he couldn't tell what any of the circles and sigils on his arm meant, but he could vaguely remember his brother saying something about "deconstruction". He had no idea what that meant, though, or how to use it.

It happened by accident, one day. He was returning to his training regimen, aiming to return to peak physical strength- he had no idea what he intended to do with his life now, but he knew that, as a survivor of the war, he would have to fight to keep it. He was lifting rocks as makeshift weights, meditating on what had happened, trying to come to some kind of peace with it, when the face of the State Alchemist came back to his mind, the smug smirk, the cheerful laughter, the all-consuming desire to _destroy_ him...

There was a flash of blue light, and the rock shattered into dust. He stared at the bits of grit tumbling from his fingers, and then at his arm. He picked up another rock, and thought over what had just happened. He had been thinking of the alchemist, and he had focused on wanting to destroy him...

_Destroy..._

There was another flash, and the rock crumbled. This time, not sunken into meditation, he felt it; the power flowing into his arm from the tattoo and into the rock, tearing it apart. And now that he knew what it felt like, he could feel it still there, sitting dormant, waiting for his call.

He touched his hand to another rock, calling upon that dormant power, causing it to crumble.

He spent many hours meditating on the power in his arm. It seemed like alchemy, and alchemy went against the will of Ishvala. Yet he could not forget how the Alchemists in Ishval had not been struck down for their heresy; they had been given free reign to destroy Ishvala's chosen people. He had spent much of his meditation wondering what to do with his life, the life that Ishvala had spared, but looking at his arm he knew that it was not Ishvala that had saved him. It was his brother. Ishvala had not given him this power. His brother had.

And his brother was dead because of it.

So he decided on the only course of action that made sense. He would destroy those heretic Alchemists, the murderers who had destroyed his people so that they could destroy no more. He would destroy them with their own sinful art. He would have to forfeit his own soul to walk the path of destruction, but what other path did he have? The world seemed to him now only a cycle of destruction, and the greatest perpetrators were the Alchemists. He would destroy as many as he could, and when, in the end, they inevitably destroyed _him_ for it... well, that would be one more sinful Alchemist removed from the world.

Destruction could only beget destruction. He abandoned everything that day, his name, his soul, his previous hopes and plans, keeping nothing but his destroyed past, to become an angel of destruction. Let Ishvala judge him for it; he'd judge the Alchemists first.

And carry out the fitting sentence.

_I am so glad that religious extremists in this world can't perform Facepalm of Death. _

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	16. Dream

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_59: Dream

_**Characters:**_ Alphonse Elric

_**Universe: **_Anime

_**Words: **_214

_**Warnings: **_Fourth-wall inversion.

Alphonse woke up coughing again.

He'd started keeping a glass of water by hid bed for this; it was happening a lot. While taking a drink to soothe his throat, he thought over the dream. He had them a lot, almost every night now, and they always remained as clear as memory- no, clearer.

It had started a couple of months ago, dreams about seeing Ed in another world. The countries were different, and there was no alchemy, but Ed was there, talking about different sciences- physics and things like that, sciences that weren't as major as alchemy. When Al dreamed, he knew about them too. He'd talk all night with Ed, only it was all day in his dream. They built things together, and planned things. Something about rocks. Al could never understand it when he woke up.

Ed looked older, different to how Al remembered him, but it was definitely Ed. It made Al happy to see him, but it also worried him, that he could only see his brother in dreams of some imaginary world. He was scared that it meant that Ed was dead.

All day, Al studied alchemy, hoping to figure out what happened to his brother, and waiting for night to fall so he could see him again.

_About the only part of the movie's conclusion that I was really satisfied with was that Ed and Al got to be together again. I really don't know what those two would do without each other._

_I need to do this essay. I really need to do the first draft of this essay. But it's just going nowhere, I can't think what to write, so every time I find myself staring blankly at the document trying to figure out how to stretch it by 200 more words, I try to jumpstart myself by shooting off another one of these. (Well, it's worked for the past 100 words.)_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	17. Loneliness

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_39: Loneliness

_**Characters:**_ Edward Elric, Alfons Heiderich

_**Universe: **_Anime

_**Words: **_577

_**Warnings: **_Trains.

Ed stared listlessly out of the train window, watching the unfamiliar countryside slide by. Once he'd, if not enjoyed, been quite content when riding trains; it always meant a step forward, moving towards their goal. And he never travelled alone; he was with Alphonse.

This was when he missed Alphonse the most. He could tell himself that it was worth it if he knew for sure that his little brother was alive and safe, but sitting alone on the train, the doubts returned to him; the fear that he had failed, like he had with his mother, and that he was in this world as a punishment for trying. Being stuck in a world where he didn't know anyone or anything except _Hohenheim_ sure sounded like Hell to him.

"All the more reason to figure out a way back," he muttered, giving himself a punch on the cheek and digging one-handedly in his briefcase for one of Dr Oberth's essays. He swore under his breath as the case slipped under his fingers, dropping onto the aisle floor and spilling papers everywhere.

"Shiiiiit..." he stood up awkwardly, still not moving easily on the limbs Hohenheim had put together for him. They were to Winry's automail what a circle scribbled by a child was to a transmutation array. He nearly fell over again trying to lean down for the papers, but someone grabbed his arm.

"Hey! Are you okay, sir? Whoa- what's wrong with your arm?"

The guy had grabbed Ed's right arm. He jerked his shoulder self-consciously to take it out of the stranger's grasp, straightening up. "It's a prosthetic. Thanks..."

His brother was looking at him in concern.

"A..." Ed's throat dried up. _Alphonse_? He stared at the teenager, drinking the sight in, but it struck him that something was off. His hair and eye colour were wrong, and while he was staring back at Ed with utter confusion, there was no recognition there. The stranger with Al's face looked down at the scattered papers, confusion morphing back into concern as he knelt down.

"Let me help with these," he said, collecting up the scattered papers. "Hey... these are essays by Dr Oberth!"

"You, uh, follow the doctor's work?" Ed asked, trying to keep his voice from shaking. This guy really did look _uncannily_ like Al, but an older Al, one who'd gotten to grow up as he should without ever being trapped in armour. The voice was the same, familiar but older. All of it was unsettling, but comforting at the same time. The boy was a paradox to Ed.

"I'm on my way to Rome to study rocketry with him," Al's lookalike said, handing the case and papers back to Ed. Ed shoved the case under his seat, holding onto the papers.

"Thanks," he said absentmindedly. "So am I. He seems like the authority."

"Small world, huh?" the other laughed. "Why don't we travel together, then? Travelling on your own's lonely. He stuck out his right hand, and then, looking at Ed's prosthetic arm, seemed to think better of it and switched to his left. "I'm Alfons Heiderich. Nice to meet you!"

"Edward Elric," Ed said, sticking the papers under his right arm to shake Alfons' hand. "Nice to meet you... Al."

This guy wasn't his brother, things were still strange and Ed still didn't know how to get home. But he could feel his loneliness lift a little, and that was enough for now.

_I finally decided to check how to spell Alfons' name on the FMA wiki. While giving the characters a mix of European and Asian names is pretty cool and has pretty much averted the characters having separate English and Japanese names, it does make figuring out how to spell and pronounce their names properly difficult. How on earth do you render German names in katakana anyway?_

_Still need to find 146 words for this essay... GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH X(_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	18. Books

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_49: Books

_**Characters:**_ Sheska

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_455

_**Warnings: **_Once again, obvious character choice is obvious.

Sheska stifled a yawn as she shoved on her glasses and self-consciously patted her hair, hurrying to answer the door. She'd pulled an all-nighter last night to replicate some of the books they'd asked for. Sometimes she felt like she was going to spend her life recreating the contents of the First Branch, but she couldn't very well let all those books die.

"Morning, bookworm," Captain Breda said, giving her a little wave in lieu of a salute under the stack of books he was carrying.

"Good morning, Sheska," Lieutenant Fuery added, his voice a little muffled by his stack. "I hope we didn't wake you."

"No, no..." Sheska stifled another yawn. "Wow, he got through all of these already?"

"Probably memorized 'em as good as you, too," Breda chuckled, setting the pile down next to the wall. "The Colonel- hell, Major General, now!- he's pretty damn driven. Askin' for more books already."

"I've got some more right here," Sheska said, indicating a pile of books and a couple of ringbinders on her table. "I thought he might be interested in "_The Birth of Ishvala; Pre-tenth Century Ishval_", but I couldn't find a copy. I read it back in the First Branch, though, so I just wrote it down."

"Wow! All this?" Fuery said in amazement, flicking through the thick binders. "This is amazing, Sheska! Thank you!"

"O-oh, it was nothing," Sheska said, blushing under their praise. Breda grabbed the larger stack, reading down the titles.

"Yeah, he'll love these," he said. "Thanks a ton, bookworm!"

"You know, you should start your own lending library or bookshop or something," Fuery said, looking around as he picked up the folders and a few more books. "You've got a ton of books we couldn't find anywhere else."

"Oh, really?" Sheska looked around thoughtfully. "You think that would be a useful thing to do?"

"Well, yeah!" Fuery laughed. "More importantly, you might have fun!"

"Move it, Fuery," Breda called. "Thanks again, bookworm. We'll probably be back in a few days. Let us know if you find anything else!"

"I'll do my best," Sheska promised, watching them go. Her tiredness had seeped away already. Major General Mustang was going to help save Ishval, and she'd been able to help him do that. It felt good, to know that what little she could do could be part of something so big.

"I wonder if he'd be interested in "_Flora and fauna of the Eastern Desert_"," she mused, picking up a few books to put them back in their places. "Oh, wait, that was in the First Branch..." she stared blankly at the wall, and then shrugged. "Well, it could come in useful. I hope I can reproduce the drawings alright..."

_I love Sheska to a ridiculous extent, mainly because she is so me that it's creepy. Short, messy brown hair, dependency on glasses, almost photographic memory for books read, absolute love of the written word and easily-distracted work ethic... and Sheska's like that too! XDXD I also identify heavily with her fears of being useless and desperation to help people._

_Also... FINISHED THE ESSAY! I'm going to reread it tomorrow and hate it all, I just know it._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	19. Cat

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_75: Cat

_**Characters:**_ Mei Chang

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_235

_**Warnings: **_Kittens

"Mama, mama!"

Mei looked up from the flowing circles that she was sketching to see her eldest daughter running through the house, utterly soaking wet. "Trisha!" she scolded. "Did you go out in the rain?"

"I'm sorry, mama," Trisha said, contritely bowing her small golden head. "But I had to get in the kitty!"

"The kitty?" Mei asked, noticing for the first time the small damp bundle in Trisha's arms. "Oh, no... where did you find that?"

"I saw it out the window, trying to hide under a bush," Trisha said sadly, following her mother to the bathroom. "It looked so cold and wet..."

"Here we go," Mei said, draping a towel over her daughter's head and picking up the kitten in another. "We'll give-" she glanced quickly under the towel- "her a place to stay until the rain's over, then you have to put her back, alright? We can't keep this one..."

"B-but, mama!" Trisha wailed, pinning her mother with tearful, dark-gold eyes. Mei looked down at the pitifully mewling kitten, and back to her daughter, who was clearly on the verge of tears, and relented.

"_Fine,_" she sighed, cradling the kitten and rubbing her fur. "What do you want to call this one?"

"Maybe Walnut, she's the same colour..." Trisha began chattering brightly, tears instantly forgotten. Mei sighed, looking at the little brown kitten again.

"Entirely too much like her father," she muttered.

_Yeah, I totally ship Al and Mei when they're older... I bet they come up with some epic new alchemy together XD_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	20. Crossdressing

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_32: Crossdressing

_**Characters: **_Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Jean Havoc, Kain Fuery, Vato Falman, Haymans Breda

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_421

_**Warnings: **_TINY MINISKIRTS

"Good morning, Colonel Hawkeye," Roy said brightly. The new uniform policy had been enacted that morning; while he greatly appreciated Riza Hawkeye's skill, intelligence and integrity, he could also fully appreciate how those long, toned legs of hers looked in an above-the-knee skirt. Her expression, when he got around to it, was less pleasant. "Ah, I didn't mention that I was putting through the new uniform policy this morning, did I?"

"No, sir," Hawkeye said. Roy tried not to flinch. She was sounding _that_ kind of serious, the mood where people got shot between the eyes. "Nor did you let me proofread it before you sent it through, as you normally do."

"Ah... is that a problem?" Roy said innocently. "I wanted it to be a... surprise!" Riza strode over to the door of his main office, slamming it open and overturning a chair that somebody had put there to prevent anybody getting in.

"Sir, there is a very good _reason_ that I prefer to proofread all of your documents," she said, pointing to three figures that were even now fighting over Roy's spare uniform pants.

"F-Fuhrer Mustang, sir!" Falman yelped, swinging around in a knock-kneed crouch as he tried to yank down the skirt to cover just a bit more hairy leg. Roy's brain blanked Breda entirely. Oddly, Havoc was standing aside from the rest, leaning across the desk with his legs crossed.

"I dunno, guys," he was saying. "It's actually kinda comfortable. Better air flow, too, which ain't to be sneezed at with summer coming. Hey, Fuery, how come _you_ got such great legs?"

"I'm, uh, not naturally hairy," the younger man muttered, going even redder than he already was, crouched on the floor and trying to stretch his skirt out over his knees. "Sir, was there some kind of mistake in your new uniform policy?"

"Y-yes," Roy croaked, "I think there was. Ah, Hawkeye, if you could help me redraft...?"

"Of course, sir," Riza said smugly. Jean clapped his hands and stood up, grabbing a box off the desk and striding (good lord, was he _swinging his hips?_) towards Roy.

"In the meantime, sir..." he said, handing over the box. "If this is gonna be a democratic country, you've gotta abide by the same rules as the rest of us. We'll leave you alone to change, sir."

Roy was contemplating where to throw the box where it would hurt the worst, when the door burst open in a horrifying blast of sparkles.

"FUHRER MUSTANG, I MUST PROTEST!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

_Alexander Louis Armstrong in a tiny miniskirt. He will return in your nightmares._

_In significantly nicer news, LION KING 3D IS THE GREATEST THING IN THE HISTORY OF EVER. Seriously. THAT is how you do 3D, people. _

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	21. Zombies

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_86: Zombies

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_1881

_**Warnings: **_Zombies, language

"You're the Fullmetal Alchemist, yes? Nice to meet you. I am the former Earth Alchemist, Jon Katiliute. Please, come inside."

"Thanks for seeing me," Ed said, stepping inside the imposing mansion. "This place seems to be kept up quite well, even though you don't have your license any more. Do you live alone?"

"There's not another soul in the building except me," Katiliute said lightly. "I have managed to acquire a small income from using my alchemy for others- well, small compared to the research grants of a State Alchemist, anyway!" he gave a dry laugh. The man wasn't that old, Ed knew, but there was something _dried-out_ about him. Had he fought in Ishval? Or were the rumours about his experiments... "Please, come through to the sitting room."

There were two cups of steaming tea sitting waiting for them. Ed sat down where indicated, taking a sip of the brew. It was still boiling hot, as if it had been poured moments ago.

"So, Fullmetal Alchemist," Katiliute said, blowing gently on his own tea, "what caused you to seek me out? I had my license taken from me, after all."

"I don't think that means that you're underqualified," Ed said. "In fact, I heard rumours that your license was taken because you were suspected of attempting human transmutation..."

Katiliute looked up at Ed, a slow, slightly unhinged grin spreading across his face. Even his _eyes_ were a dry, brown colour. Nothing seemed to be missing from him, though- aside from, Ed increasingly suspected, a chunk of his sanity- so if he had really tried human transmutation...?

"I had theories," Katiliute said slowly. "I came up with a construction circle, and I calculated the human body to the last microgram. I came up against a roadblock with the soul, however. Equivalent exchange must be satisfied, and I could not calculate what could match the price of a human soul..."

Ed nodded absentmindedly. "You _had_ theories... you abandoned it?" Katiliute didn't respond to the question. Ed wondered if maybe he had tried it, and a chunk of his brain had been removed. The man's greying hair was such an untidy mess that there could easily be a hole hidden in the back of his head. "Who were you trying to bring back?"

"My Marija..." his expression finally shifted away from that mad grin, to a kind of faint longing, as his gaze drifted to a dusty photo on the side table. Ed picked it up, polishing the glass left-handedly. There was a handsome young man, just about recognizable as Katiliute, standing with a gorgeous blonde woman. Ed nodded again, setting the photo down.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he said, setting the picture down. "And I'm sorry to take up your time. I came to ask about human transmutation, but if you never performed it..."

"I haven't performed it _yet_," Katiliute said, snapping his fingers. "I'm still experimenting. But I'm almost there."

"What do you mean, almost-?" Ed yelped as something grabbed his arms from behind the chair in an almost impossibly tight vicegrip. Ed looked down, surprised to see only a pair of pale hands. He struggled, but he couldn't break their grip, not even with his right arm. He looked up at his captor, and froze in shock as he beheld the face.

There were two eyes, and a nose, and a mouth. But it was barely a face. It was grey, and twisted, the teeth oddly shaped, the eyes milky white and blank. The face didn't change in expression at all as Ed renewed his struggles, and the hands didn't move an inch, even as his struggles grew more frenzied.

"What the hell is this thing, Katiliute?" Ed yelled, staring in horror as more figures limped in from the door behind the alchemist. Some walked fairly normally, whereas one or two were crawling on four malformed limbs. Some had human faces, and some had faces that looked familiar from Ed's nightmares about attempting human transmutation on his mother. Katiliute patted the arm of a girl in a maid's uniform, who looked almost entirely human aside from the odd pallor to the skin and the milky whiteness of the eyes.

"Well, I'm no bio-alchemist, so even getting the body right was a chore," he said airily, waving his arm to indicate the group of... _things_. "I didn't bother trying to trade to get their souls back, not yet. The brain functions, the heart beats, the body is alive... after a fashion. There's simply nothing in there. They don't have the volition to move without strict orders."

"These people... you killed them?" Ed gaped, staring, counting. Fifteen... twenty? "All of them?"

"I brought them back," Katiliute said brightly, as if this made everything alright. "I've perfected the body process. I can make my Marija just as she was. Now I just need something very valuable to trade for her soul, and the only thing that I can think would equal it would be another soul... a _living_ soul..."

"Yeah?" Ed growled, tensing. "Well, I wouldn't try paying with mine- it'll just bounce!" He swung up his left leg, leaning back to kick over his head and hit the- _thing -_ square in the face. There was a horrible crunching noise, and while the hands remained stiff, they dropped, allowing Ed enough room to wiggle out of them. He rolled away from the lurching grasps of more creatures, pelting down the hallway. Was the front door on the left...?

There were more of them down in the front hall. Ed rounded a corner and ran straight into one of their arms. It was a woman; or at least, it had a woman's long, stringy black hair, over a distorted grey face that was the farthest possible thing from human. And the _stench..._

"Now, now, Fullmetal," Katiliute's voice said behind him. "Be a good boy and rest a while. It's rude to pay a visit and leave so soon..."

Disgusting, twisted hands wrapped over Ed's nose and mouth, and he was smothering, he couldn't breathe, he had to get away he had to escape these things he had to _Mom..._

Alphonse watched as the clock ticked towards nine. There was nothing for it. He'd have to go get Nii-san. Al couldn't help feeling uneasy; Colonel Mustang's warnings were ringing in his helmet.

"_Katiliute was never a particularly... moral man. He didn't _enjoy_ being in Ishval, as _some _did, but he was never unsettled or bothered by it either. And he could be quite single-minded when he had a theory in mind. There was never any proof that he had actually done anything illegal, but nevertheless, the military could no longer be seen to support him. If you want to speak to him, I'd like to come with you. Just to be safe."_

Of course, Nii-san had insisted that they didn't need any assistance from "Colonel Jerkwad" and had snuck off, promising to be back in an hour. That was two hours ago.

He had a more immediate problem, however; how does a seven-foot-tall suit of armour sneak out of military rooms?

Ed came around coughing. The stench was somehow even stronger, the air almost solid with it. His eyes flickered open, and focused on the unsettling sight of his own arm and leg sitting on a table across the room, his coat, shirt and shoes piled neatly next to them. The other arm was tied tightly behind him, his leg also bent and bound behind him. He tried to sit up, but could only roll around on the damp earth floor, too unbalanced with only half of his limbs.

"Katiliute? Where the fuck are you?" he yelled. "Let me out of here, dammit!"

"No need to yell, boy, I'm right here."

Ed craned his neck around to see the Earth Alchemist crouched on the ground a few feet away, putting the finishing touches on a circle. "Try not to roll around so much. You'll knock Marija's body over."

Ed rolled again anyway, this time feeling his arm knock against a shallow basin at his side. He felt suddenly sick; he knew exactly what was in there. He could still recite it in his head, the grocery list of elements that made up the body of a female adult.

"This won't work, Katiliute," he said, wiggling his arm to try to undo some of the knots. Unfortunately, they were tied tight with expert knots; Katiliute was evidently well-practiced. "You don't understand what you're doing!"

"Don't worry, Fullmetal," Katiliute said happily. "Soon, Marija will be back in my arms, just as she was!"

"That's not what I'm worried about! Shit!" Ed tried struggling towards some of the markings, aiming to scuff through the circle. Unfortunately, the interior circles were painted into the ground, so Ed couldn't damage them. There were several crunching _thumps_ above them; Ed winced at the sound of undead feet shuffling. Katiliute looked up at the ceiling.

"They're restless," he said thoughtfully. "Do we have a guest?" He shrugged and went back to sketching sigils around the outer circles. Ed was more interested.

"DOWN HERE!" He bellowed at the ceiling. "THERE'S A ROOM DOWN HERE! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!"

There was more_ thump_ing above, a moment's pause, and then a blue circle lit up on the ceiling a few feet away from Ed. Ed felt a glorious sense of relief as a suit of armour dropped heavily through the sudden hole, crashing into the bowlful of materials. Katiliute howled angrily as its contents spilled across the floor.

"Nii-san!" Al gasped. "What happened?"

"Talk later, run now!" Ed demanded as Al scooped him up in one arm. "And grab my arm and leg, too, Winry'll kill us both if we leave 'em!"

"Got it!" Al clicked his breastplate open and hurriedly scooped the items on the table into his chest cavity. Behind them, there was an angry scream. Katiliute had been scribbling on the ground, and now straightened up.

"How dare you interfere!" Katiliute howled, charging them with a halberd. Al didn't bother flinching; the earth-made metal broke easily off his armour. Al knocked him aside with no trouble. A more pressing concern was the large number of undead servants staggering through the door to the basement.

"What _are _these things?" Al whimpered, backing away from them. "There were a ton upstairs!"

"This guy's early experiments in human transmutation," Ed growled. "Bodies without souls! Let's get the hell outta here!"

"Got it!" Ed scribbled a transmutation circle on the floor with his toe and then dropped to his knees to activate it, creating a column of earth that pushed them back through the hole in the ceiling. Ed winced as more abominations shambled towards them, but Al could run faster, and didn't stop after they'd burst out of the gate and started tearing towards East HQ.

"Are you alright, Nii-san?" Al asked, slowing down once they were a good distance from the mansion. Ed groaned loudly.

"Colonel Bastard is _not_ gonna let go of this, is he?" he moaned. Al sighed.

"Well, he has every right to say "I told you so", and he probably will... a lot..."

"Shut up and get me somewhere I can stick my limbs back on."

_Long oneshot is long. I apologize for two horror oneshots in a row :P_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	22. Hot

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_44: Hot

_**Characters: **_Alphonse Elric, Mei Chang

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_355

_**Warnings: **_Sand

Alphonse blew upwards, but all he did was ruffle his fringe with warm air. The shade of his hood was only relief for so long, before the trapped body heat and hot air started overheating again.

"_I almost miss my armour now,_" he complained, in the privacy of his own head. "_Maybe armour warms up easily, but at least I couldn't _feel_ it..."_

He was glad that Ed had elected to go west instead. He'd have serious burns on his left leg by now.

"Mr Han," he called, "how many more days' travel?"

"We're very nearly at the outpost," Mr Han said, pointing at something glimmering on the horizon. Al had taken it for a mirage, but looking closely he could see that it was actually a group of white tents. He brightened up immediately with a goal in sight, patting his horse on the neck.

"I can't wait to see everyone again," he said excitedly. "It's been two years. It'll be good to see Ling, and Lan Fan, and Mei..."

There was a hooded figure standing in front of the tents. As they grew closer, it extended an arm and began waving madly. Al waved back, trying to figure out by the height who it was.

"Hi!" Al yelled, dropping down from his horse when they were close enough. It was good to walk again, though he was a little stiff and sore from the hours on horseback. The figure threw back her hood, and Al gaped for a moment before he was glomped around the neck.

"Al-sama!" Mei cheered, hugging him tight. "It's so good to see you again!"

"_Mei?_" Al gasped, staring at her when she let go again. She seemed to have doubled in height without adding a lot in weight. "Wow! Look at you!"

"Look at _you_!" She laughed, pinching his arm. Even her voice was a little deeper and smoother. "You got some meat on your bones! Come on in and get a little more, we just made lunch!"

"S-sure," Al agreed, still staring as she tugged him inside. Was it actually _possible_ for it to get any warmer?

_Mei's age is never stated anywhere, to the best of my knowledge, so I take her to be about 11 when she appears, making her three or four years younger than Al. So yeah, there are a few teen years where shipping them feels a little awkward, but hey, the age difference seems smaller the older they get :P_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	23. Fall

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_14: Fall

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_476

_**Warnings: **_Leaves

The trees were almost entirely bare, the last dead leaves drifting lazily to the ground. It was probably appropriate that they'd made their ill-fated attempt at human transmutation in the fall. It wasn't a time for birth, but a time of death.

It was because of death that the brothers were here now, standing in front of a blank tombstone. They had taken some flowers from Pinako's carefully tended garden to bring; transmuting something hadn't seemed appropriate.

"You know, it made me feel better for a while, to know that we didn't kill Mom again," Al said after a while. "But now I just feel worried that we created something... some_one_ else... just to kill them."

"I thought you said you were in there, Al," Ed said, looking up at his brother. He was crouching in front of the tombstone he'd transmuted years ago, while Al stood; the resulting height difference reminded him of their days searching for the Philosopher's Stone. "Nobody else's soul got hurt. You can't create life with alchemy."

"Yeah..." Al relaxed a little, and then looked slyly at his brother. "Speaking of creating life..."

Ed stared blankly at his brother, and then turned red. "Wh-what?"

Al sniggered. "Ed, I've just spent two years learning to read the flow of life force. When were you planning to tell me?"

"Errr... it's kind of a secret until the wedding's over," Ed admitted, going even redder. "Um. Wait. You know. We invited Mei and Ling and Lan Fan... are they going to...?"

"They'll probably know straight away," Al said brightly, laughing as Ed jumped to his feet in a panic. "Relax. I'll ask Mei and Lan Fan to promise not to tell, and I'm sure between them they can get Ling to keep his mouth shut..."

Ed sighed, not looking particularly reassured. He shoved his hands in his pockets, bowing his head a little to the tombstone, before turning to follow the path back home, to the Rockbell automail shop. Al automatically fell in step with him, looking at the ruins of their old home.

"You know, I was thinking of building a house here," he added. "I still want to travel for a while, but it's still nice to have somewhere to come home to. The Rockbells' is going to be yours and Winry's soon. I'd like a home of my own, I think."

Ed nodded a little. "We destroyed enough here. Time to rebuild..."

"You haven't done alchemy for nearly four years and you're still talking like that?" Al laughed. "Besides, Nii-san, you're beyond alchemy now. You and Winry managed in a few minutes what no alchemist has managed for centuries..."

The brothers walked on through the dead leaves, looking forward to the coming time of birth and rebirth.

"...It was not a _few minutes,_" Ed grumbled. "What do you take me for?"

_I've been wanting to use the line "you and Winry did something no alchemist has ever managed. You created life" in an FMA fic for a while now, but I ended up using it a bit more... comically than I expected XD_

_Also, I got tickets to a couple of Scotland Loves Anime screenings this weekend. Quite excited :D_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	24. Vampires

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_69: Vampires

_**Characters: **_Kain Fuery, Jean Havoc, Riza Hawkeye, Black Hayate, Roy Mustang

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_365

_**Warnings: **_Leaves

"Ah! No! Give that back!"

"Fuery, what the hell!" Havoc yelled as the sergeant leapt off his chair, knocking it backwards onto Havoc, and sped off across the room after Black Hayate. The dog dodged Fuery's desperate grasps and stopped dead at his mistress' feet.

"Drop it," Riza commanded. Hayate obediently set the stick down at her feet and sat down, waiting for further instructions. Riza picked it up, staring at it. Fuery straightened his glasses nervously.

"Sergeant Fuery," Riza said slowly, "would you care to explain why you have a _stake _under your desk?"

"W-well, Lieutenant..." Fuery tried to explain, "I was reading these novels that Sheska loaned to me, and I think there's a vampire working in the military!"

Riza and Havoc just stared at him. Roy looked up from his paperwork. "Explain better please, Fuery."

"They're really strong, and really fast!" Fuery gabbled. "And really smart, too! And they _sparkle in the sunlight_!"

There was a _thump _as Havoc's head connected to his desk. Roy just turned around with a hand over his mouth, but his shoulders were shaking. Riza just dropped the stake in the bin and went to peer under Fuery's desk for more implements for fighting the forces of darkness. "I think I'll need to talk to Sheska about what books she recommends," she commented. "Fuery, I can assure that Major Armstrong is _not _a vampire."

"DID SOMEONE CALL UPON ME?"

"Good morning, Major Armstrong," Roy said, not reacting to the door slamming open in a shower of sparkles and gently swinging shut as the Major strode into the office. "Did you need something?"

"I require the District 4 Murder casefiles, Colonel," Armstrong said, saluting. "Were you speaking of me?"

"Nothing important," Roy said as Riza strode over to the bookcase for the case files and Fuery edged nervously towards the bin with the stake in it. "Fuery was joking about you being a vampire..." He and Havoc laughed, but Armstrong looked suddenly sombre.

"How did you know?" he asked, advancing on Fuery. There was a scream, and a splash of blood.

"Major, what the-" Roy yelled, jerking to his feet, and froze in horror.

Even his _fangs_ sparkled.

_Yeah... I'm sorry, I have no idea at all what this is. The small bonus of not living near most of my friends anymore is that Kaite and Ems can't make me go see _Breaking Dawn_ with them._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	25. Competiton

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_17: Competition

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Winry Rockbell

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_392

_**Warnings: **_No cookies.

"Okay, the starting line's gonna be here," Ed declared, dragging his toe through the dirt. "An' the finish line's... the gnarly tree, 'kay?"

"You're drawing it wonky," Al declared, crossing his arms and glaring at his big brother. Ed looked down at the line.

"No I didn't," he insisted. Al stomped his foot.

"Yes you _did_!" He whined. "It looks like you haven't 'cause you're standing at a funny angle, but you _did_! You _always_ cheat!"

"Yeah, but he always loses _anyway_," Winry interjected, just grinning when Ed turned to glare at her. "He can't win when he plays fair an' he knows it."

"Can too!" Ed declared, dragging his toe through the dirt again. "Fine... There, happy?"

"Winry, can you go an' stand by the gnarly tree to see who wins?" Al asked politely. "He's gonna lie otherwise." Winry giggled and got up, dusting off her dress as she strode towards the tree.

"You both pick on me," Ed grumbled. "You shouldn't pick on your big brother. We shouldn't even be fightin' about this one. I'm _older_'n you, an' taller by a whole two inches, an'-"

"Winry's taller'n both of us, though," Al pointed out. "An' her birthday's a whole month 'fore yours. Come on, or are you gonna give up?"

"No way!" Ed said, crouching down by the starting line like he'd seen the older kids do. Al stayed standing up. "Right, three- two- one- GO!"

Al shot off towards the tree. Ed tried to, but he tripped over his own feet, and by the time he'd bounced back up and running, Al was almost at the tree already. There was no way he'd catch up.

"We need to do it again!" he complained. "No fair! I fell!"

"It's your own stupid fault," Winry said. "Al wins."

Ed crossed his arms, turned around and stomped away in a huff. From a distance, he watched Al ask Winry. She giggled and shook her head, before wandering off, bored already with boys and their stupid competitions. Al wandered over despondently and plopped down by his big brother.

"No good," he said morosely. "Winry said she wouldn't marry _either_ of us."

"_Neither_ of us?" Ed complained, lying down heavily. "That sucks!"

"I know," Al huffed. "We're gonna have to come up with another excuse for Granny Pinako to make cookies for us, huh?"

_This one's based on a true story. When I was little, I occasionally got married to a friend of mine in his back yard so that his mum would make us cookies to celebrate._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	26. TV Show Parody

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_37: TV show parody

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Russel Tringham, Fletcher Tringham

_**Universe: **_anime

_**Words: **_437

_**Warnings: **_A crack crossover instead of a parody.

"What the hell is this?" Russel said, staring at the... thing... blocking their path. They'd eventually decided that Ed had been down there just too long and started down the tunnel; or rather, Russel had ordered Fletcher to hide, started down the tunnel, and stopped halfway down to tell of Fletcher for following him anyway. They'd finally come into view of what seemed to be a giant city, cocooned underground, but the stairs down were blocked by something like a large, blue wooden phone booth. Russel went to tug experimentally on the handles, and nearly fell over when they were yanked open from the inside.

"Brilliant!" exclaimed a figure in a suit, bouncing out and peering down at the city. "Did you feel that rift energy? There's always a _ton_ when universes connect! Oh, we're going to be charged up for _ages_, aren't we, sexy?"

"Ummm... excuse me?" Russel said, backing away from the madman in... was that a top hat? "Who're you...?"

"Oh! People!" The man said, seeming to notice them for the first time. "I like people, they're brilliant, except when they're not. Hang on a moment." He went into the blue box, his footsteps fading out for longer than seemed reasonable in the tiny cubicle, and then reappeared, dragging an unconscious blonde figure. "Do you know him? Halfway through the rift, picked this guy up, and now I'm not sure which side he's meant to be on, and let me tell you getting stuck in the wrong reality _sucks_."

"It's Edward!" Fletcher said excitedly, peering around his brother. "Russel, Ed's okay!"

"Good, I'll leave him with you then!" the man said, tipping his hat. "Nice to meet you, now, places to be, all of them at once, and now that we're all charged up we're in fine shape to stop the universe from ending again. Got a good hat, too. That's important. Au revoir!" With that, he bounced back into the box, which subsequently vanished in a cacophony of bizarre lights and sounds.

Russel dropped to Ed's side, checking his pulse. He seemed fine, just unconscious. For some reason, all his limbs were flesh too. He looked down at the city below, parts of which were collapsing.

"What just happened?" Fletcher asked nervously. Russel shrugged, looking down at Ed.

"I hope he knows, because I sure don't." He stood up, starting towards the stairs. "Stay here with him, I'll be right back." He'd spotted, several flights down, a woman in a fancy dress struggling to support two smaller figures away from the collapsing city, one dark-haired and limping, the other blond and apparently unconscious.

_This was a tricky prompt because I really don't watch TV beyond Doctor Who and Torchwood. I got a mental image near the end of Mels standing up in class and saying "the reason Ed and Al screwed up human transmutation was because the Doctor didn't turn up and stop them..." XDXDXD_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	27. Villain

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_57: Villain

_**Characters: **_Envy, Lust

_**Universe: **_manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_139

_**Warnings: **_Transgendered bad guys referencing crossdressing comedians.

"Hey, I thought you were Envy, not Sloth."

Envy grumbled as a high-heeled foot prodded him repeatedly in the side. "I'm on my break," he declared, opening his eyes and rolling over to glare at his sister. "I've been busy. All you've been doing lately is flirting with lonely old generals, you've no idea how busy _my_ schedule is!" He produced a small black book from somewhere under the skort and waved it at her. Lust took it with a blank look.

"You keep a diary?" she asked, bemused. She flicked through the pages. "To do today- spying, killing, spying, spying, lunch, spying, start civil war, killing, start riots, killing, nap, spying..." she stared down at him. "How organized."

"Well, being a villain's busy work," Envy said lazily, closing his eyes. "Got to keep on top of your evil."

_Why yes, I was watching _Dress To Kill _earlier, why do you ask? XD_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	28. War

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_43: War

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Trisha Elric, Van Hohenheim

_**Universe: **_manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_360

_**Warnings: **_Fire

"Ed, come on, wake up now, sweetie..."

"...nmhuh?" Ed murmured, shifting lazily as he felt himself being pushed into a sitting position. "Mommy? Wassup?"

"Come on, get up," his mother said encouragingly. Ed couldn't see her face in the dark, but her voice sounded funny. She didn't sound as happy as she normally was. "We might have to go out for a bit, honey."

"Wh' we goin'?" Ed murmured, clinging to her hand as he staggered to his feet. The baby was struggling and whimpering in her other arm. "Mommy?"

"Stay with me, Ed," she said, tugging him towards the door. There was the sound of footsteps, and Ed looked up to see his dad running down the hall towards them, pulling on his coat. Was he going out?

"I'm going to do what I can to calm things down," he said to mom. "If you see anybody coming, don't hide, run. I don't think they'll attack you, but they are burning down buildings." Ed saw his mom flinch, and felt worried. He didn't understand what dad was talking about, but it was upsetting mom. He saw dad kiss mom on the cheek, pat the baby on the head, and then lean down to pat Ed too, giving him an awkward smile. "Stay with mom, alright, little man? Look after her and Al."

"What's going on?" he asked mom again, watching dad run off. She gave him a funny smile again, tugging his hand down the hall until they reached the living room, where she pointed out of the window. In the distance, he could see dancing red lights, like a really big fire.

"I'm so glad we live far away from town right now..." Mom murmured, watching the lights and hushing the baby. "I hope the Rockbells are alright, too..."

"Mommy, what's _happenin'_?" Ed whined, peering at the lights. They were kind of scary, and really big.

"War, honey," Mom said, putting an arm around him and hugging him close. "The fighting just keeps spreading..."

"War..." Ed wasn't sure what that was, but looking at the lights and the fear on mom's face, Ed decided he didn't like it.

_Why yes, I was watching _Dress To Kill _earlier, why do you ask? XD_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	29. Hate

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_2: Hate

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_380

_**Warnings: **_Cereal

"Hey, check this out," Ed said, tossing the newspaper at his little brother. Al snatched it out of the air before it could hit his cereal. "They offered Creta a peace meeting and they accepted. Looks like the borders west'll be open soon."

"Really?" Al said in surprise, reading the article. "Wow..."

"Did you see the quote from the ambassador?" Ed added. "The one about how, despite our long-held enmity, they feel that Creta can make friends with the new government if even Ishval is on good terms with them now?"

Al laughed nervously. "Glad they don't know the extent of it... it's not exactly _good terms..._ more like a weird combination of guilt and fear from the new government."

"Yeah, and it's not like the Ishvalans have exactly _forgiven_ Amestris for the genocide..." Ed added, tucking into his own breakfast. "There's gonna be a lot of hate there for a long time. I'm glad they got past it enough to make deals with the new government for supplies and stuff. It'll take them a while to get back on their feet."

"It's not that they're really past it, either, I heard," Al said, setting down the paper. "Some of them are, but a lot of them still hate Amestris a lot. But... well, Ishvalan has been preaching tolerance and endurance, and they all revere him as the closest thing to Ishval himself. They're learning to deal with their hate." He gave his brother a level stare in response to his irritated look. "And so do _we,_ Nii-san."

"Hey, I can deal!" Ed said indignantly. "I'm sure as hell not gonna be less in control of my emotions than "_Ishvalan_". Besides, he did kinda save the country. Doesn't excuse what he did, but he's dealt and moved on, you know?" he was staring slightly vacantly at the door to the workshop, though he looked around sharply when Al sniggered. "_What_?"

"Nothing," Al said sweetly, getting up and going to dump his bowl in the sink. "They do say hate is the flipside of love, and I think you've got a bit of both to deal with here..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ed yelled, turning the same colour as his favourite coat and chasing his cackling brother from the kitchen.

_I'm very, very annoyed at Viz media right now. Just got FMA Perfect Edition 3, and, among other things, "Cselkcess"? I know there's no "X" in katakana, but seriously, did NOBODY think there might be a way to render that name that made something resembling sense? They also have the characters repeatedly address Ling as "Lin", even on the same page where we see his criminal tags which clearly say "Ling Yao". And at one point Falman says "And __**who's**__ fault is that?" WTF, Viz? Seriously? You can't even write in freaking English? Please start giving this job to someone who vaguely understands English, plz._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	30. Werewolves

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_70: Werewolves

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Riza Hawkeye, Roy Mustang, Alex Louis Armstrong

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_903

_**Warnings: **_Riza RUNS OUT OF MILK

"So, are you and the Elrics headed out in the morning?" Roy asked, nodding at Major Armstrong over the evening's paperwork drive. The Major saluted sharply.

"Indeed, sir," he said proudly. "We shall depart on the morning train to Resembool!"

"Very good," Roy said. "So, is there something that you needed to ask?" The Major looked uncomfortable. Roy figured it was probably something to do with the boys' secrets; telling his most trusted about the Elrics' attempts at human transmutation had been difficult, even if he had done so with the boys' blessings, but it had hit Armstrong hardest of all. As the only other Alchemist in the room, naturally he would realize the enormity of what the boys had done more than Hughes, Havoc or any of the others.

"There was something that you left out of your explanation earlier, sir," Armstrong said uncomfortably. "You said only that the boys were forced to exchange their bodies for their failed transmutation, and that Edward Elric traded his arm for his brother's soul... _how_? I ask as an alchemist and in the interests of the boys' safety."

Roy sat back, vaguely feeling Riza glare at him for abandoning his paperwork, but ignoring it in favour of the larger question. He wasn't sure how to answer it, because the brothers had never given him a straight answer. "...I don't really know. Edward once said that he went through the Gate and saw the Truth. I don't know what he means by that, and I don't know what else might have happened to the boys beyond the "Gate". I really don't know what happened or what the effects are."

"Hmmm... I see." Armstrong still seemed preoccupied.

"Is something wrong, Major?" Roy asked pointedly. The Major shifted uncomfortably.

"I'm sure it's nothing, sir," he said promptly. "The boys are merely acting... odd, I suppose. They were very insistent that we stay here tonight rather than taking the evening train, and very insistent that they be left alone tonight..."

"Probably they need some time to deal properly with what happened today," Riza said diplomatically. "They have dealt with a lot and can act very mature, but they _are_ still children."

"I suppose so, ma'am," Major Armstrong said, saluting again. "I shall return to my quarters to rest up in time for the train in the morning. Good evening!"

"Good evening, Major," Roy said, giving the man's back a lazy salute as he watched him go. "I'm sure it's nothing. Those two can be extremely private. Still, as an alchemist, I can't blame him for being curious about what happened to those boys."

"Curiosity can be a hindrance, sir," Riza pointed out. "Look what it did to the Elrics."

It was late, but Riza desperately needed milk, so she leashed up Black Hayate and headed out to a corner shop that opened late. Halfway there, however, Hayate froze, snarling viciously up at a rooftop ahead of them. Her hand immediately went to her gun, looking up and following Hayate's steady line of sight.

Something was crouched on the rooftops above them.

Riza drew and fired repeatedly, but the thing leapt down, a huge mass of snarling fur. Riza rolled out of the way, dropping Hayate's leash, firing again, but it didn't seem to affect the thing at all. It stalked towards her, growling gutturally.

"What the hell is that?" she muttered, dropping her gun and reaching for a second. It was huge and hulking, vaguely humanoid, with dark gold fur and a distinctly canine head. It howled and leapt.

It howled again as flames washed over it, knocking it aside, Giving an odd screaming yowl, it shot off down a side alley.

"Colonel?" Riza gasped in surprise, lowering her gun. The Colonel was dressed for going out, and seemed to be halfway towards one of the bars in the area; there was a lightly-dressed woman standing a little way behind him, hands clasped over her mouth in shock. "What... was that?"

"Some kind of chimera, I'm guessing," he said, looking down the alley. "I'll drop Vanessa off and detour by East HQ to report in about that. I'd suggest you go home, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir," Riza said, snatching up Hayate's leash and tugging the panicking dog home. She stared up at the full moon, looking nervously along the rooftops.

"...what _was_ that?"

The next morning, Riza briefly saw the boys as they were waiting outside of HQ for Major Armstrong. Al was sitting awkwardly with his damaged side turned to the wall, and Ed was sitting next to him, his remaining arm clutching his left shoulder as he bickered quietly with my brother.

"...sorry, alright?" he was muttering. "Not my damn fault. Not like _I _asked for it anymore than you did..."

"No, I'm sorry," Al replied as softly as his resonating voice would allow. "I should've been able to... If I wasn't like this..." he looked up. "Oh, good morning, Lieutenant Hawkeye."

"Good morning, boys," Riza said, giving them a salute. "I hope you have a pleasant journey."

"Uh, thanks," said Ed, looking down nervously. "See you later, Lieutenant."

"Goodbye." Riza continued on to HQ, glancing back only briefly. The two were bickering again, but they seemed to be bickering over who needed to apologize. "_Scar's really thrown them for a loop_," she thought. "_I wonder how they'd feel if they knew about that odd chimera..._"

_Well, Truth is kind of a dick. I can imagine It messing with Ed's biology for shits and giggles._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	31. Evolution

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_55: Evolution

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_222

_**Warnings: **_Tadpoles

"Hey, Al! Come look!"

"Did the snare get something?" Al said excitedly, running through the trees of Yock Island. He skidded to a halt just short of diving into the small pool that his brother was crouched at the edge of. "Hey, there's a pool here?"

"Look at this," Ed said, pointing into the water. Al couldn't see anything at first, but then he caught sight of a wiggling black shape, and as soon as he saw one he saw dozens, hundreds more. "Hey, tadpoles!"

"Amazing, isn't it?" Ed said, grinning and poking at the water, watching the tadpoles dart away and then swim tentatively back. "You wouldn't think they're going to be frogs."

"Didn't it say in one of the books that _we_ used to be frogs?" Al suggested. "Millions and millions of years ago. And then small mammals, then monkeys, then... _us_!"

"Everything grows over time," Ed said thoughtfully. "Everything just keeps growing until... it dies, and something else eats it to grow."

"Seems like everything in general would get bigger over time that way," Al said, watching the tadpoles swim. "From tadpoles to people..."

"Yeah," Ed said, staring into the water with a vague frown.

"Is something wrong?" Al asked, watching his brother's preoccupied expression.

"...Do you think they're edible?" Ed sighed. "My snare hasn't caught anything all day."

_I have such bad writer's block right now. Maybe it's because I just finished reading _Snuff_. It's a little demoralizing to realize that I will never write as well as Sir Pterry. T_T_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	32. Family

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_6: Family

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Winry Rockbell, Izumi Curtis, Sig Curtis

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_564

_**Warnings: **_Sig Curtis

"Hey! Izumi!" Ed said, grinning brightly when he opened the door to his alchemy teacher and her husband. "Glad you made it!"

"Of course we did!" Izumi said, giving him a warm hug. She leaned back, holding him at arms' length and smiling warmly at him. "How's Winry?"

"Doing just fine," Ed said, still grinning broadly as he lead them through. "Things went really well. Oh, Al's here too. We asked him to be the godfather."

"Really? That was sweet," Izumi said, peering into the bedroom. "Hi, Winry! Oh, _there he is_!"

Ed and Al couldn't help staring as their teacher swept down on the baby, actually _cooing_. Winry smiled and held him up for her to see. Sig just smiled softly at the obvious affection on his wife's face, and gently put an arm around her, carefully peering down at the little blue-wrapped bundle. The baby stared at him for a long, tense moment, and then, to the surprise of all, blew a bubble and waved at him rather than bursting into tears.

"He doesn't really smile yet, but I think he likes you," Winry laughed, nodding at Ed. He sat down next to his wife, putting an arm around her shoulder and smiling down at their son.

"Perfect!" he declared, before staring very seriously at Sig and Izumi. "We have something to ask of you two."

"What is it?" Izumi asked, managing to tear her gaze away from the baby, though she didn't move the fingers that she was dangling over his face for him to bat at.

"Please don't hit me for this," Ed said nervously, "but... do you want to be his honorary grandparents?"

"After all, he doesn't have any relatives except his parents and me," Al hurriedly added as Izumi stared open-mouthed at her pupil. "Not since Granny Pinako died... I-I mean, not that you're old or anything, but... ah!"

"I-Izumi?" Ed said as he spotted the tears dripping down Izumi's cheeks. She stroked the baby's cheek gently, before reaching up to wipe her eyes. Sig squeezed her shoulders, his own eyes shining suspiciously.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she said, noticing their panicked looks, though Winry was smiling. "I'm just... of course, Ed. I'd be honoured. You know you and Al are like sons to me." As the brothers breathed a sigh of relief, she leaned over to embrace her older pupil, before leaning down to smile at the baby again and tickle his cheek. "Nice to meet you, little one."

"Alright then!" Ed said, grinning broadly again now that the danger had passed. "Then Toby, I'd like you to meet your, uh..."

"Nana Izumi," Izumi said quickly. "Nana sounds younger than granny."

Al turned to the wall with a hand clamped over his mouth, shoulders shaking violently. Ed and Winry permitted themselves small chuckles. "...Right. Toby, meet your Nana Izumi and Grandpa Sig. Guys... meet your new grandson, Toby Elric."

More tears fell down Izumi's cheeks, but she made no move to wipe them away. Sig leaned over too, one of his huge hands joining Izumi's in stroking the baby's soft head with surprising gentleness. "Nice to meet you, Toby," he said, his deep voice perhaps slightly thicker than normal.

Toby closed his eyes, leaning into their touch. Al joined them, too, and the family drew closer, marvelling at the new life that had finally been granted to them.

_I love Izumi, and her attempt at human transmutation always has me in floods of tears. I think she'd let Ed and Al's kids call her granny, though. And it would be the most adorable thing ever :')_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	33. Alternate Ending

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_94: Alternate Ending

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, Rose Thomas, Winry Rockbell, Alfons Heydrich

_**Universe: **_anime

_**Words: **_959

_**Warnings: **_Mention of multiple minor character death.

Ed shifted slightly in the hopes of his shoulder becoming a more comfortable pillow for Al. He was tired, too- destroying the portal had taken a lot of effort, especially after that horrible fight with Eckhart- but Al had also been controlling suits that he'd sent to the other side of the portal, and the strain of using alchemy on both sides of the Gate had really knocked him out. Ed had had to carry him onto the train back to Resembool, thankful for the strong automail limbs that Winry had made him. He flexed his fingers, just for the joy of being able to do so freely, and stared out of the window, drinking in the scenery that he'd thought he'd never see again.

A glance at the opposite seat saw Alfons also staring in awe. Ed was glad that he'd finally perked up. Eckhart had decided to drag him onto the rocket with her to make sure it was functioning right at the last second, and on the way he'd seen all of his colleagues, his friends from their days in Dr Oberth's lab, shot for resisting. Al said that his suits had taken down most of the Thule thugs, and that a police intervention led by a guy that looked like Mr Hughes had cleared up the rest, but Ed still worried about what was going to happen to that world. Was Mr Hughes alright? Had the Fuhrer that Eckhart followed succeeded in his plans for that night? Was that world going to be alright?

He sighed heavily, his breath misting the window and momentarily obscuring the view. Well, there was nothing to do about it now. He was back where he belonged, and he needed to worry about this world's problems first.

"I still can't believe it's real," Alfons said softly. Ed glanced over at him again, grinning at the enraptured expression on his face. "I really thought... it was just weird stories. But it's real, and it's so... _beautiful._"

"I told you, didn't I?" Ed laughed. He raised an arm to steady Al when the train jolted, sniggering when the jolt also caused the sleeping Winry to roll and lean on Alfons' shoulder. The bright red that Alfons went was hilarious, as was his expression of panic as he tried to gently shift her back to upright without waking her. "Hey... I'm sorry you're stuck here with us."

"No, don't be!" Alfons said quickly. "I'm really glad I get to see it, and... there's nothing for me there. I don't have any family, and you're the only one of my friends they didn't kill. And... I want to see this world, and do something _here_. I don't think my world is ready to use my rockets properly, and I'd rather be forgotten by it than remembered for helping the Thule Society destroy everything. I'm sorry I freaked out at you over it, Ed."

"No, I'm sorry," Ed said, shaking his head. "I always treated your world like a bad dream, and even worse, I treated you like one too. You're not my brother, and you're not a figment of my imagination..." he stared out of the window.

"You're real, and you're alive," he said softly. "As much as I am, or my brother is, or anyone is in your world or mine. It's all real, and it needs to be protected."

"I hope Germany's going to be alright," Alfons said, peering out of the window again. "Hey, are those buildings?"

"Yeah, that's Resembool!" Ed said, unable to help a huge, dopey grin as his childhood home slid into view. "Wake up Winry, willya? Unless you want to carry her and her stuff in. And I gotta warn you, her toolbox weighs a _ton_..." he shook Al gently, watching the younger boy's eyes slowly drift open, once again immeasurably grateful that his brother could open his eyes and that Ed could be here to see it. Rose had once told him that believing in God caused you to live with hope and gratitude every day, but it sure as hell wasn't God that was making him so thankful for everything that he was seeing.

"Speak of the devil," he hissed, spotted the tall dark figure on the approaching station. "Morning, Al," he added teasingly as his brother sat up and stretched. "Good sleep?"

"Yeah..." Al wiped his eyes, stared at Ed for a moment, and then flung his arms around his neck. "Yeessss! It _wasn't_ a dream!"

"Of course not," Winry said sleepily, automatically tidying her hair in case she'd acquired chair-head. "We're finally here? Granny'll be so happy to see all of you!"

"It'll be good to see her too," Ed said absentmindedly, waving out of the window as they pulled level with the platform. "Is that _Rose_?"

"Oh! Yes, she came through a few days ago, after the first portal opened in Liore," Winry explained, waving at the older woman, who was grinning brightly at them. Ed couldn't remember the last time she'd smiled like that; certainly before the disaster with Father Cornello, when she still had the faith he'd robbed her of. "A lot of people got scared and fled the city. She brought Cain and came out to Resembool. She'll be so happy to see you too!"

"Cain? Is that her baby's name?" Ed asked, trying very hard not to run as he followed Al off the train. "No, wait, he'll be, what, three now?"

"You've got a lot of catching up to do," Winry laughed, hopping onto the platform and then spinning around to smile at them. "Welcome to Resembool, boys. Welcome home."

"It's good to be back!" Ed laughed, stepping off of the train and into the morning sunlight.

_That's how it bloody SHOULD have happened. If I pretend that's how it happened, I can ship EdRose and AlfonsWinry to my heart's content :D_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	34. Life

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_65: Life

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Winry Rockbell

_**Universe: **_anime

_**Words: **_621

_**Warnings: **_Old people

_2007_

There were so many photographs hanging that he could barely remember what colour the wallpaper was. The walls were a flickering pattern of grey and sepia and faded colour, but every single one imparted to him a taste, a scent, sounds of voices. He could look at any one and remember another time and place, and the lives that his had crossed there. If he closed his eyes and sat back (about as strenuous an activity as he could manage these days) he could _feel _them, the tentative link that his life had to others, stretching around the world. So many stopped dead at cold stones, but even then they tangled with the other lives that those lives had touched, and following those he could feel even more lives, following the web around the world to feel the billions of lives that he had never met and would never see the faces of or know the names of.

How could he ever have thought of this world as a dream, as if it stopped existing when he wasn't observing it? Well, children were self-centred.

If he felt carefully, he could feel it, the other world overlapping with this one, simultaneously a dream and reality, and the lives he'd left behind there. Dante had once said, so very long ago, that babies and young children could still feel the Gate, because they were not yet old enough to have forgotten about it, but at his age Ed could feel the Gate near at hand too. At his age, closer to death than birth, he could sense the slow approach of the day when the body finally failed and the mind faded (luckily for him, it seemed to be happening in that order) and the soul flew through the gate to become energy. He smiled wryly at the idea that he was going to be a transmutation in time, dying in this world. He hoped it would be an impressive transmutation, and not some kid botching a doll for his friend.

He thought of a piece of paper becoming an origami crane, and a mother's delighted laughter. He probably had enough energy for that.

Yes, now was the time to think of these things. Of all the many things that had happened, the people that had been, the times that were past. There was no point in them having happened if he did not think of them. He remembered his brother's life for him, too, and Alfons'. His links to both of them ended at cold stone now. At least he hadn't left Al all alone again.

He reached out again, almost able to smell the gate, and felt the lives of the people he'd left behind. He could almost see the one-eyed general, and brown eyes that remained sharp even when faded with age, and a mother of all under grey locks that retained a faint hint of pink, and old soldiers reminiscing over dulled swords and rusted guns. Everything faded in time, if you did things right. You gave yourself to the world and kept giving, until you faded out and all that was left was the part of you in everything.

He could almost see it, a house in the old district of the metropolitan Resembool, and an old great-grandmother comfortable in her bed, feeling people walk around wearing her creations, a part of her in hundreds and hundreds of people, supporting them and helping them live. Ed flexed old metal fingers, feeling her touch linger there.

"It was a full life," he murmured, "and well worth it."

She smiled at him. "Mine, too."

The single linked stretched, the tenuous strand between two webs that linked billions of lives...

_I had fridge horror in the middle of writing this when I realized that, when 2003!Ed dies, since he'll die in this world, he's going to become transmutation energy. As will 2003!Al. Whereas souls from Amestris seem to go somewhere else, since something of Trisha's soul seemed to be in Sloth, and something of the woman that became Lust. _

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	35. Summer

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_13: Summer

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_174

_**Warnings: **_Ed cussing a bit

"Aaaagh, where's the _train_?"

"Calm down and wait patiently," Al said soothingly, watching his brother fan his right shoulder. "It's due in just a couple of minutes."

"Why doesn't this platform have any damn shelter?" Ed whined. "It's the middle of summer and some of us are getting burned by our own limbs here!" He shifted his right leg, crossed over the leg, uncomfortably. He could swear he could smell his leather trousers cooking. "You're lucky you can't _feel_ this heat..." he began, patting his brother's arm. Unfortunately, it was with his left hand, and he instantly yanked it back, screaming and blowing on the burnt flesh.

"Uh, sorry," Al giggled, "but that _was_ kinda karma, you have to admit."

"Yeah, yeah," Ed muttered, blowing vigorously on his hand. Al watched him for a moment, before unclipping his breastplate and holding it up over his brother's head to create some shade.

"Does that help?" he asked. Ed stared at his brother, and then nodded.

"Thanks," he muttered. "Hope that damn train gets here soon."

_I'm having problems writing Al's dialogue. Despite the fact that the rest of the time I'm quite comfortable writing the way the characters address each other in English, I always want Al to call Ed "Nii-san", since in English calling someone "brother" just sounds a bit odd and doesn't have the same connotations as Nii-san. But that one Japanese term seems a bit random and out of place. For now, I'm avoiding having him call Ed anything at all. I might just make him call him "Ed", but that seems a bit off for Al too. Hmmm..._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	36. Gate of Truth

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_28: The Gate of Truth

_**Characters: **_Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_759

_**Warnings: **_PTSS

Roy felt his heart _thump_ and jerked awake, his eyes snapping open. They didn't show anything but darkness, but for a moment this was actually a blessed relief; complete darkness was the exact opposite of the image that still lingered in his mind's eye, the nightmare that had awoken him.

"Sir...?" he heard movement in the next bed; he must've woken Riza up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" he apologized, moving his head around partly out of habit and partly to listen for the sounds around him. "What time is it?"

"Hmmm..." he could hear her reaching for her side table, the slight _tapping_ of her fingers as she felt for her watch. It must be very late, or very early, and not much lighter for her than it was for him. "It's oh-three-eighteen hours, sir. What happened? Nightmare?"

"Yeah..." Roy carefully lay back down, feeling how he'd shifted in his sleep and moving back to the middle of the bed. "About the Gate of Truth. I finally know what the Elrics meant by that..."

"What is it, sir?" Riza asked. He could hear the _click_ of a lamp being turned on, to allow her to see him better, but not a speck of light filtered through to him. It made him feel naked, isolated, but he could always trust in Riza Hawkeye, always at his back, always with her sharp eyes. "If you don't mind my asking."

"It's like... a white space, with nothing but, well, the Gate," he said, feeling that the words were too mundane to describe that place. "A huge stone gate, and guarding it is... a person."

"A person, sir?" Riza prodded. "What kind of person?"

"Me, I think," Roy said wryly. "But not me... those parts of me that I deny, perhaps, the parts that make up a me that I don't want to be? I don't know... but I think if you'd met him, you'd have shot him." He laughed a little, and heard Riza laugh dutifully.

"Were you having a nightmare about that person?" She asked softly. Roy could hear the layers in her tone, the ones he had been so adept at deciphering in her face. He knew what she was thinking of, the him that he nearly was when fighting Envy, and hoped that she didn't nightmare too often about him.

"No, it was the Gate," he said, struggling to find the words. "Behind it was... _everything_. All at once. It was too much, too much to comprehend, swarming and drowning..." he shook his head. "I can't describe it. It's like being trapped in a void, but the opposite, because instead of nothing it's everything. I don't know how to explain it..."

"I suspect it's a difficult place to explain," Riza said calmly. "You've been dreaming about it?"

"Pretty much," Roy sighed, dropping an arm over his eyes, more for the comforting pressure on his face than anything else. If he pressed hard enough, little stars appeared, which was as close to sight as he could get. "It wasn't just me... it's been delayed, but it hit me: _those boys saw it too. _As _children_. I thought I was going to die in there! How did they survive?" He could still see the ones drowning with him, the ones who had attempted human transmutation; the screaming young woman, the crying children, reaching for each other even as they bled and bled and their bodies were torn apart...

"Perhaps part of them didn't," Riza said quietly. "But they're strong. Just like you are, sir. They recovered, in time, and so will you. You just have to use the Truth that you learned for the benefit of this country."

"Yeah... I sacrificed a lot to get here," he said, pressing on his eyes again. "I guess this is a sign that the time for dreaming is past... time to make my visions reality."

"Still, we can't help our nightmares," Riza said, the light _clicking_ and her bed squeaking as she settled back. "Just remember that you're not alone, sir. I'll be here, sir, if you ever feel like you're alone in the dark."

"I know." Nothing more needed to be said, but he just had to defuse the tension. "So you'll be here when I wake up? Is that a promise for _every_ night?"

"Go to sleep, sir," Riza said firmly. "If you're having trouble getting to sleep, I'm more than willing to help you."

"Goodnight, Hawkeye," Roy laughed, dropping his arm and drifting off.

"Goodnight, sir."

_The Gate really is freaking TRAUMATIZING. I would have nightmares forever about being dragged away by freaky black hands. GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	37. Doctor

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_81: Doctor

_**Characters: **_Doctor Knox, Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_402

_**Warnings: **_Dr Knox being Dr Knox.

"Mr Mustang, sir?"

Roy glanced up at the young doctor who was peering out of the room. He'd distracted himself for the past hour trying to figure out where he'd seen him before. "Is everything alright?"

"Just fine, sir," the doctor said with a smile. "Everything went smooth as silk. You can come in now."

"Thank goodness," Roy sighed, pushing into the hospital room. Riza had ordered him out the second he'd, started rubbing his hands together; it wasn't an uncommon nervous tic in new fathers, apparently, but when a distracted clapping alchemist started doing it you had to worry about what would happen to the next thing they touched. Winry and Rebecca were still in the room, though, and both smiled at him, which was a good sign. There was another doctor in there that he hadn't seen come in, handing a little white-wrapped bundle to Riza.

"Thanks for the help, dad," the younger doctor said to the older one while Roy drifted dreamily towards his wife and new child.

"No problem, it's yer first childbirth," a gruff voice said. Roy had to look up at that.

"Dr Knox?" he said in surprise, sitting down heavily on a chair that Rebecca offered him. "_You're _here?"

"Surprise of my life too, but the boy called for backup," he grunted, clapping the younger doctor on the shoulder. "Anyway, meet yer daughter, Roy."

"Hi, princess," Roy said softly, leaning over the bundle. "Wow. Lucky thing looks just like you."

"Wait 'til she opens her eyes and you won't think so," Riza chuckled. "Thank you, Doctor Knox and... Doctor Knox."

"Yes, thank you," Roy said emphatically, standing up to shake both of their hands. "Thank you for bringing my daughter into the world." Said daughter joined in with a piercing cry, emphasizing how very alive she was and how very well her little lungs worked

"...I'm goin' back downstairs," Knox grunted, not looking Roy in the eye. "Corpses're quieter." He slouched out of the room, with his son starting to follow.

"He means "you're welcome"," the young man said sheepishly. Roy nodded, grinning.

"I know," he said, sitting back down on his chair and leaning over to be closer to his wife and daughter. "Thank you."

"It's what we do," Knox Junior said, opening the door and stepping out, before pausing. "At least, these days."

The door shut gently, leaving the new family alone together.

_Dr Knox is about as significant a character as Yoki, but every scene with him is either hilarious or heartwrenching. I always tear up when his family comes to visit, at the way his ex-wife and son's faces light up when he talks about treating living patients, and him crying while getting out mugs. He contributes quite heavily to the theme of redemption._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	38. Paint

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_71: Paint

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Winry Rockbell

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_544

_**Warnings: **_Pie

"Can you reach now?" Ed asked, carefully shifting his shoulders to raise Toby a little higher and very carefully _not_ shifting his feet on the rickety ladder at all.

"Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhhh..." Ed could hear Toby straining to reach up to paint to right under the roof. Winry had decreed that it was about time that the building got a fresh coat of paint, and so he and Toby were spending the day on the ladder with brushes and a couple of buckets of light yellow paint. Decorating was apparently "men's work", while the women got on with the mechanics.

"Down we go, then," Ed said, swinging Toby under his arm and descending the ladder with the giggling boy clutched to his side. "Right, let's get to work on that third wall."

"Daddy?" Toby said thoughtfully. "When Uncle Al and Auntie Mei wanted their house a different colour, they didn't use _paint_. Uncle Al just clapped his hands an' patted the house an' _whoosh!_ Different colour." Toby waved his arms on the _whoosh_ for emphasis. "How come we gotta use paint?"

"Because Al's cheating," Ed muttered under his breath. Toby looked confused. "Al used alchemy to change the colour of the house. I can't do alchemy."

"Weeeellll... why don't we ask Uncle Al to change the house, then?" Toby asked, picking up his brush and following his father around the house. "We wouldn't hafta paint!"

"I am _not_ getting my little brother to do my job for me," Ed grumbled. "He did it with his own two hands, and so will I. Just... differently."

"Besides, because he used alchemy, it didn't take him very long," Winry said, leaning out of the window. A delicious smell wafted out with her, stopping the pair dead. "But _you've_ earned apple pie for your hard work! How about a lunch break?"

"Yay, pie!" Toby cheered, about to drop his paintbrush, before catching his father's eye and _carefully_ setting it down on the lid of a tin of paint. "I'm hungry!"

"Let's go get cleaned up, then," Ed said, setting down his brush and following Toby inside, closely enough to catch the boy and drag him into the bathroom before he shot into the kitchen.

"Daddy?" Toby asked thoughtfully. "So, alchemy's like an easy way of doing stuff, right?"

"Kind of," Ed said, not wanting to discuss the meaning of alchemy with a five-year-old. Not like he'd been older when he'd started using alchemy, but he hadn't understood what he was getting into.

"But... you don't get pie if you do stuff the easy way," Toby said, with the air of one reaching a great epiphany. "If you do stuff the hard way, you can earn pie."

"More or less," Ed laughed, turning off the tap and reaching for the towel. "Here you go. Dry 'em good, you don't want your pie to slip out of your hands."

"Kay!" Toby dried his hand carefully, and then randomly hugged his father around the legs. "Anyways, if you'd done it with alchemy, we wouldn't've gotten to play!" He let go, tearing down the hall. "C'mon, pie!"

"Be right there," Ed promised, drying his hands and grinning. The long way really wasn't that bad, he reflected, following the scent of pie down the hall.

_I love thinking of Ed as a dad. I just know he'd be a good one. He'd really love his kids._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	39. Blood

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_68: Blood

_**Characters: **_Alphonse Elric, Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Maes Hughes, Jean Havoc, Kain Fuery, Vato Falman

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_1,173

_**Warnings: **_Major character death.

Roy had read about the five stages of grief somewhere. He could feel depression clawing at him, dragging down everything he did and making it seem pointless. Even the investigation, the manhunt, felt pointless.

Riza, however, seemed fixated on anger. She'd already been angry at the local MPs for not responding faster, at train station employees for not stopping a man with an X-shaped scar on his face, at the military for not better distributing the information that a man with an X-shaped scar on his face was a serial killer so that the station employees would have known to stop him, and of course an epic tirade against Scar himself. Now, her fury was turned against Edward.

"How could he be so _stupid_?" she ranted under her breath as the pair marched down the halls of Eastern Command towards Roy's office. "After all he's been through... how could he abandon his brother like this? _How could he_?"

"I'm sure he wasn't planning to," Roy said dully, thoughts flickering over the surviving brother, if he could be called that. The damaged hunk of metal that had sat in the corner of his office for the past three days only responded to direct enquiries, and even then rarely anything more than a "yes" or "no", constantly watching the 24-hour operations centre for the Scar manhunt that Roy and Maes were running. Both men tended to be in the office for about 20 of those hours; Roy himself was just returning from a nap that Riza had forced him into after he'd fallen asleep at his desk for the third time in an hour.

Alphonse couldn't explain how he got into his condition, half of his body blown off, but he'd been found in an alley near the scene of the crime, unable to lift himself, having been unable to reach his brother. Roy couldn't imagine what he'd seen, the fight between Ed and Scar. His imagination wasn't good enough. The images that it had presented him with, when Hughes had warned him that Scar would be after State Alchemists in the area, certainly hadn't matched up to the real thing.

That small body had held so much blood. And it didn't anymore, because they'd been _too late_.

"Any updates?" he snapped as he stepped into his office. Havoc stood up.

"A sewage pipe worker was found an hour ago," he reported. "Definitely Scar's work. The method of killing's pretty distinctive. Units have been sent down into the pipes with strict orders to report back and _not_ engage if they locate him."

"Let us know the _second_ something comes through," Roy ordered Fuery. The younger man nodded, not looking up as he held headphones to his ears with one hand and drained a cup of coffee. From the bags under Fuery's eyes, he'd need a nap break himself before long, but his expression said very clearly that he would not be taken from his radio just yet.

Roy looked over at Alphonse. The helmet had shifted a little, watching Roy enter the office and converse with his men. "Alphonse, how about we get Major Armstrong to fix you up?"

"He can't," Al said dully. "If he does it wrong, my soul will detach."

"Well, what's the right way to do it?" Roy asked gently. The boy was even further into depression than Roy was; he could barely see the red glow in the helmet that substituted for eyes.

"I don't know," Al said. "Nii-san always did it."

Riza made a frustrated noise. Roy frowned as Al's eyelights flickered out for a moment. "Come on, you must have some idea how to do it right. If we can fix you up, you can come kick Scar's ass when we find the bastard."

"I don't know," Al said flatly. "Doesn't matter anyway. It's all about not damaging the blood seal, and that won't matter for long."

"What do you mean by that?" Roy asked, feeling a leaden fear press down on him. It grew heavier as Alphonse shifted, taking off his helmet, allowing Roy to see the normally vivid-red symbol painted inside his neck.

It was black, and crumbling. As Roy watched, a couple of flakes floated off it. "Alphonse, what's happening to your seal?"

"Seal?" Maes asked, tearing himself away from the map across one wall to peer over Roy's shoulder. "What is that?"

"Nii-san painted it in his blood to bind my soul to this armour," Al explained. "But the blood's dying, ever since Nii-san did. Soon, it'll die entirely, and it won't bind me any more."

"What?" Roy yelled in shock, taking off one of his gloves- always on his hands, in case he got lucky and that bastard Scar came after him- and beckoning Hughes to give him one of the push knives that he knew the man always carried. "Don't worry, I'll repaint it... my blood'll still be living blood, right? The rune doesn't look that complicated..."

"Don't bother, Colonel," Al said sharply. "You'll only bind yourself to this armour."

Everyone in the office was staring at Al now. "Al, what are you talking about."

"I remembered some things," Al said, worringly calm. "Things I'd forgotten, about the Gate of Truth. See, Nii-san and I went through it together, and we got a bit mixed up, body and mind and soul. That was how Nii-san could bind _my_ soul with _his_ blood. And I guess he kept my body alive too," he added thoughtfully. "I can see it. As the seal loses grip, my soul keeps getting pulled back to it. It's dying now, too."

"There must be something we can do for you!" Maes said desperately, placing his hand on the armour's shoulder. Alphonse made no move to pick up his helmet, and indeed seemed to have stopped moving at all; more flakes crumbled from his seal. "Alphonse, just tell us what to do!"

"Nothing," Al said placidly. "You can't do anything, and I don't want you to. Don't you see?" he giggled childishly, the child that he should have been. "We finally get to go home. Back to Kaa-san."

"No!" Riza cried, joining the huddle in front of the immobile armour. "Alphonse, don't you dare do this! Hang on, you hear me?"

The rest of the seal crumbled into black ash.

There was shocked silence in the office for a long moment. Riza began to shake, repressing tears, fury or both, Roy couldn't quite tell. Maes sat back, taking off his glasses and covering his eyes.

"Falman?" Roy said quietly. The man instantly stood to attention, sniffing quietly. "Order a second coffin. Adult-sized should fit him, I guess. Rearrange the funeral for two. We ought to bury something. Havoc?"

"Y-yessir?" the Lieutenant said, chewing on the end of his cigarette.

"Double the search. Find that bastard. We're going to bring him to justice." He tugged his glove back onto his hand.

"And when that fucker turns up in court, that cross is going to be the _last_ scar they notice."

_Decided to actually do NaNoWriMo this month. I'm Mangaluva on there too, if anybody else is writing and wants a buddy ;)_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	40. Flowers

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_83: Flower(s)

_**Characters: **_Gracia, Edward Elric, Maes Hughes

_**Universe: **_anime

_**Words: **_926

_**Warnings: **_Ed being a Shipper on Deck.

"Good morning, Edward," Gracia said as her older lodger limped into the shop. "What are you up to today?"

"Actually, I need to buy some flowers," he said sheepishly, looking over some of her stock and left-handedly stroking the petals of some lilies. She grinned at him.

"Flowers? Whatever for?" she teased. "Have you got a date?"

"What? No!" Ed yelped, blushing. Gracia laughed, and he chuckled with her, scratching his head. "Nah... I actually wanted to... well, today's the day a good friend of mine died, actually."

Gracia immediately grew serious. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Edward!"

"Don't be," Ed said quietly. "It was long ago and far away... too far for me to visit his grave. But he was like a father to me, y'know? I feel like I can at least buy him flowers."

"I see... what are you planning to do with them?" Gracia said, joining him and examining the flowers, trying to think of good mourning flowers.

"I dunno," he said, shrugging. His artificial arm clanked. "Walk around with them, maybe I'll leave them somewhere he'd like... heh, maybe I _should_ give them to a girl!" he laughed. "He was always bullying me to get a girlfriend!"

"Oh, my," Gracia giggled. "He sounds like a nice guy."

"He really was," Ed said, smiling at her. It was that funny little smile that he sometimes had, a little nostalgic, like he was looking at her and seeing someone else. Then he snapped his fingers, brightening up. "Y'know, he didn't really have a favourite flower. What's your favourite kind of flower, Gracia?" he grinned cheekily. "Gracidea?"

"Very funny," Gracia said, giving his ponytail a chastising tug. "Actually, I'm rather fond of hyacinths. They have such a lovely fragrance, and such gorgeous colours."

"Can I buy a bouquet of them, then?" Ed said, digging in his pocket. Gracia waved him away, walking over to the hyacinths and picking out a bouquet.

"Don't worry about it," she said, selecting some black ribbon to tie them up with. "Give my regards to your friend, will you?" She gave him a soft little smile as she handed the flowers over. "You sound like you cared about him very much. You miss him?"

"Yeah..." Ed said, examining the flowers. "I think about him a lot. Even more, recently." He brightened up. "Thanks a bunch! I bet he'd like these a lot."

As the young man limped off, Gracia returned to setting out the begonias. After a while, it occurred to her that she hadn't even asked the name of the dead man. She wondered where he was buried.

He really must have meant a lot to Ed. Gracia found herself near tears, for a man she didn't even know. Ed's grief must have really gotten to her, she thought, rubbing her eyes and going in search of more plant pots.

Ed limped down the road, fielding a few jokes from guys that he knew about the flowers he was carrying. It occurred to him, not for the first time, that he really needed to look into new prosthetics; there didn't seem to be automail in this world, but surely _somebody_ could make a fake leg with knee and ankle joints that bended properly? It couldn't be that hard, and with the leg he was on now, he was never going to find him...

He grinned in relief when, passing the beer hall, he spotted the black police car. As he'd expected, a few of the old drunkards out front started wolf-whistling and asking him who the hot date was, giving him an excuse to stop and yell back.

"There's no need for that kind of language, Edward," Officer Hughes said mildly, leaning on the bonnet of his car. "Black ribbon? Is that really appropriate for a date?"

"Probably not," Ed said with a little shrug. "Good thing I'm not on one. A friend of mine died today, but his grave's a long way off so I'm gonna find something else to do with these."

"Oh, my condolences," Hughes said, frowning. "Why hyacinths?"

"Well, the guy didn't really have a favourite flower," Ed said, waving the flowers. "Miss Gracia picked 'em out for me. Did you know, hyacinths are her favourite flower? She said she really likes the fragrance, and you can grow 'em in all her favourite colours."

Hughes perked up almost imperceptibly. "Miss Gracia said that?"

"Yep," Ed said, limping over and putting the bouquet in Hughes' hands, to the man's surprise. "Tell you what. My pal was a cop, like you-" funny how something could be a lie and the truth at the same time- "so can you do something with these? Put 'em in a vase or something. It would be good for you to know how to take care of hyacinths, right?"

"Hey, Ed..." Hughes said in exasperation as the drunkards began hooting and whistling again. Ed stepped back and limped off, waving back at the man. Glancing back when he was safely down the block, Ed saw Hughes yelling at the drunkards, but when his back was turned to them, he was looking at the hyacinths with a tender expression. Ed smiled sadly, continuing on his walk.

"_I know that the dead can't be returned to life,_" he thought, looking up at the sky. "_Once someone's gone, they exist only in your memory. But I guess you can get lucky, even in Hell._"

He strolled off, or as close to a stroll as he could manage, turning over cherished memories in his mind.

_My NaNoWriMo's been slipping the past couple of days. I can't seem to make up the wordcount. The story's going nowhere. PLUNNIES, RETURN TO ME!_

_...No, it's no good, I'm just crying about Hughes again. In a way, the thought that he's alive _somewhere_ is comforting, but it's significantly less comforting when you realize that that place is going to be _Nazi Germany_. Because that was such a totally fun time and place to be alive :/_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	41. Love

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_1: Love

_**Characters: **_Winry Rockbell, Edward Elric

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_646

_**Warnings: **_Make-Single-People-Feel-Shit-Day

Winry dropped her shopping bags heavily and kicked the door of her hotel room closed with a heavy sigh.

"_Remind me to strangle Major Havoc_," she grumbled, flopping down across her room's sofa. She and Sheska had organized to have a girl's day out in Central, to studiously ignore the fact that it was the Couple's Day today and that neither of them had a date. And then they just _had_ to run into Havoc, trying to carry a bunch of flowers while he was still on a crutch, and wouldn't he just turn out that the books on Ishval that he'd been visiting Sheska's for so often had just been a pretext? "_Well, I've got myself to blame,"_ she sighed, holding her hand up to the ceiling and staring at the still-bare ring finger. "_She looked so happy, I told her to go with him. Anyway, It's not that I _can't_ get a date today, it's just that he happens to be a continent away..._" Frustrated at herself and globetrotting alchemy geeks, she dropped her arm over her eyes.

There was a knock on her door, and a porter's voice said "Miss Rockbell? There's a call for you at the front desk."

Winry brightened up. Had he at least remembered to call? Unusual behaviour for him, but then, so was proposing, and he'd managed _that_ eight months ago.

"Hello?" she said, picking up the handset. The line was a little fuzzy; long-distance. Luckily, Ed wasn't a hard person to hear.

"_Hey, Winry! I thought I'd call to say Hi and tell you I just got into the country of Sisil. It's kinda weird here, you should _see_ how people dress!_"

"Weird, huh?" Winry asked, entering happily enough into their friendly chatter, though irritation began to mount as the conversation stayed on weird countries and how her business was doing and didn't go anywhere near the date.

"_Alright, then,_" Ed said eventually. "_My call money's running out... oh, hey, Sisil's famous for jewellers, so, uh... you don't happen to know your ring size, do you? I'm sorry I didn't get you one before, I was, uh, kinda focused on actually getting up the courage..."_

"It showed," Winry giggled, breaking into a grin. "Size O, as it happens. And I thought you'd forgotten!"

"_To get a ring? No, 'course not, it's just that like I said..._"

"Not about the ring," Winry sighed in exasperation. "What today is!"

"_...Look, I know your birthday was last month, and our, uh, anniversary isn't for another four, so I didn't forget _them..." She heard Ed musing. She frowned.

"Have you lost track of time?" She growled. "It's Couples Day, you idiot! The day for people to tell the person that they love, well, just that! Geez, I thought you'd called because of that!"

"_Idiot,_" Ed grumbled. Winry flared up.

"What'd you say?" she yelled. The clerk jumped and stared at her.

"_I said people who go for that crap are idiots,_" Ed yelled back. "_C'mon, what do you take me for? I'm not going to call you up just the one day a year to say "I love you"! That's what _every_ day's for! Moron!_"

Winry froze, and after a moment said, "...You know, I think that's the first time you've ever said you love me?"

"_Never comes out like I want it to,_" Ed grumbled. She could _hear_ him blushing down the line. "_I'm not just gonna say it once a year. Who cares about the stupid date?_"

Winry smiled, all the rage gone. "I love you too, idiot. Every day."

"_Same to you,_" Ed muttered, unaccustomedly quiet. "_Every _minute._ I'll, uh, call again, I'm outta money. See you._"

Winry hung up the phone a moment later, having caught the last words before the line abruptly cut off. "Love you too," she said again, to the silent phone. "Every _second_."

_You can tell that my perpetually single self HATES Valentine's Day. This is another one that's BOATS. A friend of mine and I tried to have a girl's day out this year, to ignore the fact that we were both single, and wouldn't you know it that we ran into a guy who'd been nursing a crush on her for a while and that he'd finally gotten the courage to ask her out? FML._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	42. Colour

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_33: Colour

_**Characters: **_Winry Rockbell, Edward Elric

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_422

_**Warnings: **_Wedding shopping

"I don't know..." Winry turned around, holding up her hair to see the back as the periwinkle-blue material spun and settled softly. "What do you think? Is it my colour? I really liked the rose one too, though..."

"They both look great," Ed grumbled, biting down hard on the inside of his cheek to avoid yawning. Why the hell did it take three damn hours to pick a dress? Guys all wore the same thing to these kind of events- suit, tie, done. Why couldn't women do that too? And oh no, she was frowning at him, that frown that said that unless he started giving a crap, he was in trouble... "It, uh, looks great with your eyes," he suggested. He'd found that this one generally worked with anything blue. She relaxed a little, but still looked undecided.

"I don't know... I don't want it to look _too_ good," she said, picking up the rose one again and holding it over her front, looking over it critically. "I mean, it's just bitchy to look like you're trying to outshine the bride, you know? You don't want to look better than her, it's _her_ day..."

"Then why the hell are we even going?" Ed snapped. "All _you_ can wear is a sack."

Winry closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and turning the last sentence over in her head, and then smiling gently as she caught the backhanded compliment for what it was. "I think I'll go with the periwinkle," she said calmly. "It's a good maid-of-honour colour, and I think Elicia's wearing a similar colour to be the bridesmaid." She saw Ed visibly relax at the prospect of _finally_ getting out of the dress shop, and permitted herself a wicked grin as she turned away from the mirror. "Now we need to find _you_ a corsage," she announced. Panic instantly spread across his face. "It was awfully nice of Roy to ask you to be his best man, so we have to get a _good_ corsage, maybe something in the same colour as my dress? I don't know that periwinkles are the right kind of flower, though... and maybe a new shirt and tie, you can't wear _exactly_ the same suit you wore to your _own_ _wedding_ to be a best man... oh, how much is this dress, ma'am?"

Ed banged his head against the wall and groaned. He wondered if it was paranoid to suspect that that bastard of a General had expected this when he'd sent out their invitation.

_I know what I need to get back to NaNoWriMo; more tea. Everything will get better if I have more tea. I don't know how, but it will._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	43. Movie Parody

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_36: Movie Parody

_**Characters: **_Roy, Riza

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood/Firefly

_**Words:**_ 680

_**Warnings:**_ Spoilers for the movie _Serenity_.

"Yeah, we redecorated when you left. 'Fraid my tastes ain't as classy as yours."

Riza whirled around, biting back an automatic snipe at the captain for entering her shuttle. After all, it wasn't _her_ shuttle any more, was it? She'd just ended up here, needing to be on her own for a little while in the aftermath of the double funeral.

"Shouldn't you be flying _Serenity_, Captain?" she said instead, settling herself calmly on the swivelling pilot chair. "Or... is Gracia flying?"

"Nope, she's needin' some time on her own," Roy said, face solemn, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. Riza just nodded, thinking with sorrow of the proud warrior woman and the love she and her late husband had shared. "She ain't ever liked lookin' emotional in front've others... 'cept Hughes, of course. I'm thinkin' it's best to let her be. Al's flyin' just now, actually. Kid's turned out to be a natural at it, just like he is with every other gorram thing in the 'verse."

Riza smiled, then frowned as a though crossed her mind. "Won't he and his brother be returning home, then? After all, that agent promised to life the price on their heads, right?"

"Yeah, but Al was sayin' they're happy where they're at," Roy said with a shrug. He wandered over to lean on the deactivated control panel next to her. "Got a feelin' Ed ain't lookin' forwards to goin' home any time soon... lotta bad blood between him an' their old man, I'm thinkin'. Al seems real happy here, too, an' Ed ain't ever been a fan of upsettin' his little brother. Plus, I'd say Ed's nice an' happy here himself, or at least down in the engine room. Didn't think our little mechanic could actually be any gorram happier than she normally is, but damned if she ain't amde up a whole new level of bein' happy."

Riza couldn't help giggling. "So, Winry and Edward have finally stopped dancing around each other? I'm glad. Edward seems to make Winry happy, when he's not being so... standoffish. And Winry can make _anyone_ happy."

"Yeah, I'm hopin' she'll be workin' that magic on all of us soon," Roy sighed. "Losin' Hughes, right after the Shepherd... it just don't feel like a win." He slumped, dropping his hands to brace them against the control panel. It struck Riza that Gracia wasn't the only one with a tendency to hide her emotions, who was careful about who she let go in front of. No matter what he said, Roy loved his crew like his family, and he wouldn't want to break down in front of them. He wanted to be strong, to try and pull them back up, even when his own heart was breaking at the loss of his friends.

But here, in this shuttle, he was dropping his guard. Many men had, in this shuttle, but Riza had never before wanted so much to drop hers in kind.

She reached over and placed her hand softly over his. He jerked, staring in surprise, and then cleared his throat, looking away. "Suppose you'll be gettin' back to civilization soon, too?"

"I'm not sure," Riza said quietly. "Not yet, at least."

He nodded at the shuttle. "You lookin' to fix this place up again?"

"Maybe," Riza said, looking steadily at his face until he looked back at her, holding his gaze. "But not as a Companion's chamber. Right now... it's not quite where I want to be, or who I want to be. I want to do more. And..." she gave his hand a little squeeze. "I think I'd like to spend more time here, with my... my _family_, while I figure out just what it is I want to do. At least, if you're willing to keep me around..."

Roy's hand twitched, and she thought he was going to pull it away, but all he did was turn it over, squeezing her hand back.

"You're on my crew," he said simply. "An' we got all the time in the sky to look."

_A friend of mine described Roy as "Mal Reynolds with the ability to shoot fire", which meant I just HAD to do this when this prompt came around XD I would actually love to see some fic or fanart or something along these lines. I put Roy=Mal, Riza=Inara, Hughes=Wash, Gracia=Zoe, Ed=Simon, Al=River, Winry=Kaylee, and while I didn't really assign anyone to Shepherd Book in the oneshot, for some reason Scar came to mind XD_

_It's essay time again! Which means... lots and lots of fanfic getting written while I try to figure out what the hell kind of relevance theatre has to modern society._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	44. Gangster

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_97: Gangster

_**Characters: **_Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words:**_ 109

_**Warnings:**_ Okay, they're not really gangsters, but they dress like them.

Ed quickly looked over the controls of the "requisitioned" car. He'd seen the Colonel drive, and if _he_ could do it, it couldn't be that hard. One pedal made it go, the other made it stop, and the wheel pointed it in the right direction. Piece of cake. Those damn homunculi would never catch up to them now.

"It's a hundred and six miles to Central," Al said. "We've got a full tank of gas, the secret to the Philosopher's Stone, it's hot, and you're wearing automail."

Ed got out a pair of driving sunglasses to shield his eyes from the desert glare and gunned the engine.

"Hit it."

_Because it was an epic movie back when Dan Akroyd wasn't fat and John Belushi wasn't dead. If you'd never seen _The Blues Brothers_, do it now. If nothing else, it features Cab Calloway, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles in quick succession, and what more do you want from a movie?_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	45. Spirit

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_51: Spirit

_**Characters: **_Elicia Hughes

_**Universe: **_Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words:**_ 269

_**Warnings:**_ Overprotective fathers and grownup Elicia.

Elicia was getting frustrated. Martin was funny, sweet and _really_ cute. She liked him a _lot_, and her mom did too, which was always a bonus. But this was their sixth date already and he'd never given her more than a peck on the cheek. Elicia didn't want an overly grabby boyfriend like her friend Anna had just dumped, but _something_ more would be nice.

As he gave her his customary peck goodbye, Elicia grabbed him before he could pull away and kissed him on the lips. He seemed startled, but certainly didn't pull away. When they came up for air, Elicia asked him, "Martin, how come you never give me a proper kiss or anything? Don't you like me?"

"No, I really do!" he protested, flustered. "I _really_ like you, Elicia. It's just..."

"Well, what's wrong then?" Elicia asked. He looked embarrassed.

"It's silly," he confessed, "but I can never forget your third birthday party, when your dad pulled a gun on us when we wanted to play with you. I guess it really burned into my brain. Even though he's gone, I keep thinking that I'll turn around and he'll be there with a gun."

Elicia pulled him into another long kiss. "Well, he's not," she said firmly. "See you Friday?"

"Yeah... can't wait!" Martin called, jogging off. Elicia stepped inside, surprised to find her mother waiting just inside the door for her.

"You look happy, sweetie," she commented, taking Elicia's coat. "That's good. I was starting to think that boy wasn't into girls!"

Elicia sighed. No, but it looks like daddy's overprotectiveness can defy the grave."

_Merry Christmas to all, and Hail Santa!_

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


	46. Bath

100 themes FMA

_**Theme: **_76: Bath

_**Characters: **_ Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric

_**Universe:**_ Manga/Brotherhood

_**Words: **_ 448

_**Warnings: **_ Alphonse enjoying being a 15-year-old boy.

Central Command was more bustling than Ed had ever seen it. Everywhere were tents full of people shouting into radios to coordinate repairs, evacuations, searches. Stretchers and doctors and nurses were running back and forth as people were pulled out of the rubble of the destroyed section of the building. In the distance he could see the Fuhrer's residence, where Mrs Bradley was sitting up with the remains of Selim. She'd insisted on taking him home, but he had no idea what she wanted to do with him. He hoped that whatever it was gave her some semblance of peace. He'd never wanted to tear more families apart.

No matter where he looked, though, Ed couldn't see what he was looking for.

"Hey, Falman," he said, catching the officer by the arm as he rushed past with a pile of recovered papers. "Do you know where the hell I can get a bath?" He was covered in dirt, dust, blood (most of it his) and dissolving fragments of Father, not to mention the strong desire to scrub his right arm thoroughly, down to the bone if possible.

Falman blinked at him. "There's showers set up in the field hospital, and there's probably a bathtub in the Fuhrer's residence..."

"We don't want to disturb Mrs Bradley," Alphonse said. Ed nodded.

"Showers it is, I guess," he said, pushing Alphonse's wheelchair in the direction Falman indicated. "Dunno if you can stand up for a shower, though, Al. Maybe we should go into town and ask to borrow someone's tub..."

"You two are injured!" a young nurse said, stepping into their path. "This way, we'll get you patched up..."

"Al isn't really injured, just malnourished," Ed said, indicating his brother. "I really just need a shower..." The woman looked pointedly at his injuries. "They're not as bad as they look, seriously."

"Well, you're still walking, so I suppose we can't force you into a hospital bed, but I'll have two made up anyway," she said, taking over Alphonse's wheelchair. "Showers are over there, and we're setting up beds over here for people to wait for a hospital transfer. If you can't stand up, dear," she added to Alphonse, "We'll get you sorted out with a sponge bath. Your immune system must be in awful shape, we can't take any risks..."

"A sponge bath?" Ed gaped as the rather pretty nurse wheeled his brother off, calling out to one of her friends. Al peeked around and caught his brother's eye just long enough to give him a cheeky grin. Ed sighed heavily and trudged off to the showers. "He's had a body back for half an hour and he's already annoying me..."

_Happy New Year, all! I hope everyone has a fantastic 2012. At least until the end of the world..._

_I don't own any of the rights to FMA. Sadly, Arakawa-sensei's lawyers aren't as thick as Yoki._


End file.
